A World of Our Own
by CrimsonxEyes
Summary: Riku Dawson thought nothing of it when he sneaked aboard the RMS Titanic. However things changed when the young Sora Anderson caught his eyes. Will they two of them be able to live a happily ever after fairy tale?
1. Chapter 1

The fog horn blasted through the air, making Riku jerk forward out of shock as that deafening boom sounded right behind him. A curse fell from his lips and he very nearly staggered over as that ringing horn continued to vibrate throughout the entire dock, rattling the floorboards beneath his feet and making his ears ache for several long, drawn-out seconds. He quickly saw that he was not the only one wincing away from the noise, and he watched as the dainty, gloved hands of the ladies standing opposite him lifted to delicately press against the ears to smother the noise. Their expressions were so comically horrified by the affronting sound that he let out a snort of laughter – just as the horn finished its blaring, in time for several coiffed heads to whip in his direction. They had clearly inferred the reason behind his amusement, and it didn't help that he was still openly staring at them while he snuffled his laugh into an unconvincing sneeze, instead.

He heard Roxas's cackling laugh behind him the second that those noses turned up at him, but the scoffing sound only made the women turn their judgmental, beady eyes on him, too so that the Irishman's loud chuckle cut off with a wince.

"Whoops," Roxas muttered, grinning, and Riku soon felt a pair of familiar, calloused hands tugging at his shoulders and twanging his braces until he took the hint and they both quickly skipped out further down the docks. He could feel those snobby gazes following them as they dashed out of the way, but they were quickly swallowed up by the rest of the assembled masses there in no time at all.

The crowd was absolutely enormous. Riku had seen his fair amount of crowds in his day, especially when he'd skipped over to the pub on a busy night or caught up with the other common folk on a soup night at the local shelter, so he was not usually perturbed by the massive amount of people that could collect in one area. He was used to dodging jabbing elbows and stomping feet and, like Roxas, he was very well acquainted with slipping in between groups so that he could surreptitiously slide his way to the front of a queue without being overly distracted by the various, moving obstacles that stood in his path.

However, he was not accustomed to seeing quite so many posh, wealthy people crammed into one space – although he suspected that the experience was harsher on them that it was on him. The amount of parasols that had been withdrawn to shield the ladies' pretty, white skin was truly astonishing, when really it hadn't even hit high noon and the sun had only just barely graced the sky. Riku' tanned skin only soaked up the sunshine that fell upon his face, so he was honestly baffled by the distress that was rolling through the upper class collective that were frantically trying to escape the cheery, golden rays that were shining down upon the dock.

The idea that they had all come crawling out of their manors for just one boat was hard to believe for a boy who had been diving off of that pier since he was barely able to swim, but he supposed it was hard to call the mammoth vessel in front of him just 'a boat'. Out of anything that had ever docked at their harbour, Riku was sure that 'The Titanic' was the only one that had ever earned the name of a ship, at least in his humble opinion. He was also sure that anything else that came pulling up later today was going to seem like a sad little rowboat in comparison, no matter how impressive the owner thought it might be.

He was just hoping that he would be on the ship at that point, waving down at the tiny little vessel that feverously paddled out of the way of the cruiser while they all laughed in the sea air.

"This is never going to work, man," Roxas said in his ear, with an insulting amount of scepticism in his laughing voice. His hands were still loosely curled around Riku' shoulders as they made their way through the squeaking crowd of snobbish not-quite royalty, and the older boy reached his arms around to pin his friend against his back so he wouldn't lose him in the chaos.

"It's definitely going to work," Riku shouted back, tilting his head a little so that the words would carry. "You just have to have a little bit of faith in me, alright? And confidence. Try and look confident – and, if you could make yourself sound a little less like an Irish ratbag come to wreak havoc on their boat, that would be helpful."

"Should I sound more like you, then?" Roxas asked, in a passable impression of Riku' own accent – which, admittedly, wasn't particularly noble, either. However, he said it far more mockingly than he was capable of to give it the unflattering tone of someone who had barely mastered the English language.

A grin flashed onto Riku' face, and he pinched the waist that he was holding as he shot back, "Exactly. As you know, I always get greeted with tea and scones the second someone hears my princely voice, so you go ahead and talk like that for the rest of the trip."

He only heard the other boy's raucous, genuine laugh in his ear as they continued, and Riku dragged Roxas through to the other side of the crowd, until they were very nearly pushed onto the edge of the boat ramp that extended from the edge of the dock onto the ship. Riku staggered to a halt as he saw that the planks were about to cut short beneath him, and he laughed again as Roxas tugged him back before they could fall into the deep water beneath them. The chains had fallen away at this section of the pier, leaving only a haphazardly draped section of rope in place of what should have been a much stable barrier, and they were both far too amused by the thought of trying to break onto the Titanic as stowaways only to drown in the water beneath the ship itself.

"You are such an idiot," Roxas told him, as they both stumbled back – unintentionally knocking over a new stack of luggage that had neatly been piled near the planks so that the servants could run them back and forth. There were so many bags there that Riku had to wonder whether they believed that they were going to be permanently moving into the boat for the next few weeks. He realised that some people treated this as a very long holiday, rather than the adventure that he and Roxas wanted it to be, but he didn't remember seeing someone building a summer home up on the top deck for whoever was shipping their entire lives onto it.

"Oi, do me a favour, will you?" he asked, staring incredulously at the masses of baggage as they hurriedly straightened it so that they could commence pretending it had been someone else that knocked it over.

"Yeah, what?"

"When I become incredibly, filthy rich and I can have whatever I want, make sure that I don't start being a complete twat and spending all my money on things that don't matter." As evidence, he held up a large, styled hatbox for Roxas's inspection before he warily placed it on top of the pile with the rest.

Roxas scoffed under his breath. "If you end up incredibly, filthy rich you're going to be spending it all on me," he stated, in a tone that implied that it was obvious information. "You're going to be buying me steaks and caviar and cheese for the rest of my life if you get any sort of cash. And frosted cakes, too. And beer."

"Does it ever bother you that your life's aspirations have boiled down to what kind of food you can get?" Riku interrupted serenely, without any strong sort of malice in his voice. There was fondness in his blue eyes as he exchanged a highly amused glance with his closest friend.

"Not in the slightest," Roxas replied easily. "Especially since I know you owe me enough that you'd have to do it, anyway."

Riku only shrugged one shoulder. "Fair point," he allowed.

They quickly moved aside once the bags were stacked back into a pile that was far less neat than the one that they had been originally placed in, shuffling over to one side of the queue as they watched the process of the people being let onto the boat. There was an official standing at each entrance, beady eyes narrowed in suspicion of even the most primly dressed stiffs that danced their way over the ramps, and they held their hands out for the small stacks of paper that made up the tickets for their boarding. Ideally, their plan would have been far more successful had they managed to acquire any actual passes to allow them on the boat, but fate had not been kind enough to let those tickets fall into their laps without question and so theirs was going to be a far more unconventional arrival.

"Never going to work," Roxas said again, shaking his head. "Look, they're actually checking each individual name on there before they let people on, d'you really think there's a chance they're going to take one look at us and think 'You know what, these two guys look legit, let's chuck them on without even asking for a ticket'."

"Well, I hope they're not going to 'chuck' us on at all, personally, because the ramp doesn't look that stable, but I wouldn't mind if that's how it turned out. Faith, Roxas," he reminded the other boy, when the blonde lad let out a sputtering protest to those words. "Have faith. You always hear about people talking about stowaways on this boat or that boat, so there has to be a way to get it done successfully."

Roxas's brow furrowed. "If they actually got it done successfully, we wouldn't have heard about it, Riku," he pointed out blankly. "They would have just gone on the boat without anyone knowing who they were."

That gave the older boy pause for several frowning seconds, but he waved a hand to brush the matter away as he gave a very lame, "That's not the point. The point is faith, confidence… and a hatbox."

"Righ—what?" There was a strange excitement in the other boy's face as he banged his elbow against Roxas's and patted at his hand, a slow smile building on his face. "Right, Ri – Riku, you've already got my attention," Roxas said pointedly, as the other boy's tapping became more like punching than anything else. "What are you looking at?"

The grin that had stretched Riku' lips was one that Roxas had seen before, and it wasn't any more welcome in that moment than it had been every other time it had sprang onto his handsome face. It was part youthful and innocent, but it was also twisted into a crooked smirk of malice that only just managed to hide the truly corrupt spirit of the filthy, cheeky, mischievous creature that lurked behind the tanned skin and cheekbones that somehow fooled everyone else into thinking he was a nice person.

"How's your cockney accent going?" he asked suddenly.

"It's fine," Roxas replied warily, still frowning at his friend, and he tried to follow Riku' joyful gaze over to what seemed to be a fairly nondescript section of the wharf. His eyes skated over the bland wooden planks, trying to find what had made such a bright glint spark in the other boy's face. "Okay, you're really gonna have to step in here because I don't see what we're doing here."

He barely got the words out before Riku' hands suddenly shot out to grip Roxas by the arm, and he dragged the younger boy forward toward the stack of luggage that they had only just neatened. He hastily seized the first box that he came into contact with, and he physically shoved it into Roxas's startled hands before he began stacking them, one over the other, until he could barely see over the belongings that were now balanced against his chest.

"Uh, Riku?!"

"Wait," the older boy hissed, as he quickly grabbed a few bags of his own and slung them over his arms. He seemed to find nothing amiss with the situation; his expression stayed clear and calm as he manhandled someone else's possessions without care for the undoubtedly rude owners that might have been slightly irritated to find them rummaging through their luggage.

"I really don't—"

"What are you doing?" The uncertain question came from the new boy that was slowly approaching them from the edge of the platform, his young face drawn into a mask of confusion as he watched the two young men that were picking up the bags. He had the tan line of a working class boy, with the skin most golden above his brow and nose, but there were no distinctive rope burns or other markings that would have proclaimed him as a regular rigging boy on the docks.

Riku' eyes flitted up and down his slim frame once before he flashed a bright smile and jerked his head far back down the crowded wharf. "The boss says he wants to see you," he lied easily, and it was fortunate that the bags in Roxas's arms prevented anyone from laying eyes on the startled look that crossed his face. Riku even managed to tack on a sympathetic look for the boy as he added, "He was pissed, too, so I don't know if you've been messing with any of the supplies in his office or nothing, but he said to get your ass down there right away. We're supposed to take over."

A distinctly nauseous look crossed the boy's face as he nodded. "Uh, alright," he managed in a slightly stammering voice, and wiped his hands down his shirtfront before he moved to push past them.

"Oi, wait!" Riku called, as the boy began to jog away. He hefted the luggage in his arms. "Where the hell are we meant to be taking these, anyway?"

"Oh, there's a bay right inside the door, the others'll show you where to go. It's really simple, you only need to carry them just inside the deck and they take it down for you. If they tell you otherwise, head down to the right to find the sleeping quarters. They'll tell you everything."

Riku grinned at him. "Thanks, mate." The boy quickly jogged off toward what they could only assume to be the manager's office at the far end of the docks, and Riku' eyebrows twitched up smugly as he turned and flashed another blinding smile toward his stunned friend.

The only response that Roxas could manage was, "If you can lie like that, how come we're always being chased out of the pub for your gambling debts?"

"Because I cheat," the older boy replied cheerfully. "Now come on, before he comes back."

There wasn't any time for them to be hesitant or cautious in the way that they elbowed their way through the weary crowd; pushing through with many loud calls of 'excuse me' and obnoxious apologies that rendered the pleasantry useless the very first time that Riku stomped on a woman's foot and shouted 'I'm sorry' over one shoulder as she pranced out of the way. Roxas barely managed to contain his laughter at the sight of his friend clearing the sea of people with only a few overdone bellows and a flailing of his free arm as he felt for the edge of the decking.

Soon enough, Riku was blindly pushing another man out of the way as he finally stepped up onto the edge of the boat ramp; striding forward seemingly without any concern for the man that soon thrust out a hand to stop him mid-step.

"What do you think you're doing?" the man demanded, in a decidedly posh accent that Riku was almost certain was put on for the job. There was the nasal twang and the sense of superiority, but there was something in the man's mannerisms and the tan line of his wrist beneath his starched shirt that had him convinced he was faking it. In all honesty, that made the deception far easier; given that he was a complete fraud, too.

"We're supposed be taking these in," Riku replied, letting his voice become frustrated and beleaguered as he readjusted his grip on the bags like they were paining him. "They said to carry them straight over before people started complaining."

He was not expecting the man to come back with such a bored reply of, "Have you got your token?"

"Yep," Riku said, with the instantaneous confidence necessary to get away with any lie. "I already showed it to the bloke over the other side, but you can fish it out right now, if you like." He fought to control the smirk threatening to break free on his face as, impulsively, he shifted the bags in his arms so that he could thrust his hip out in the man's direction, pocket-first. For once, he was completely at peace with any and all comments that Roxas had made in the past about his overly tight pants, or the various wolf-whistles that he tended to get every time he so much as arched his back in front of his mates back home. He could already tell that there was no way that this man was going to break character to try and stick his hand into the side of Riku' trousers and wiggle around for what he could only imagine would be a somewhat small token to denote their position on the staff.

He watched the discomfited look that crawled over the man's face, but he did not immediately act.

"Excuse me, but is there some sort of complication here?" a haughty female voice suddenly snapped, and though Riku could barely turn around where he was trapped on the plank; he flicked a glance over his shoulder to watch a particularly delicate flower strolling forward with a sneer on her face and another silly parasol clamped in her hand. Even the guy standing beside her looked weary of her behaviour as he slouched there, his face tipped up toward the sun like none of the others' were.

Even though he immediately took a dislike to the woman who so pointedly stared past him, Riku still had to admit that she was somewhat useful as he added, "Right, is there a complication?"

"No, no complication, miss," the man replied quickly, shaking his head and looking far more working class than he had a moment ago while addressing Riku. "I'll just be back in a moment, please wait here."

Riku had always found it interesting how some of the worst treatment came from comparatively common people, rather than the rudest snobs; as it seemed that once anyone ordinary was given any sort of power over another, they became even worse for it. After years of being stomped on, they were suddenly the ones lifting the boot to crush the rest, and it almost made Riku hate his own fellows more than the poor elitists sweltering behind him.

Still, he was inclined to change his mind once more as, while watching the man skitter back onto the boat with only another thin coil of rope blocking off their passage, he heard the young 'lady' start to speak again.

"I don't understand why we have to wait in this dreadful heat for hours," she complained, and Riku made sure to keep his face within her line of view as he rolled his eyes.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Roxas whispered suddenly, leaning forward a bit. "If not, I reckon we should just leg it now before he comes back with a manager that'll just do that for us later."

Riku shook his head, and did his best to look suitably reassuring for his friend. If he'd had a free hand, he would have at least given him a pat on the shoulder, but as it was he settled with a smile and a cocky wink. "I said it'd work, just give it a second."

"Really, if my father were here, we'd already be on the boat. There's plenty of room; it's plain for everyone to see, and I can already feel how much cooler the air is from inside."

Roxas looked slightly uncertain still, but he shrugged. "Alright, if you say so."

"What did I ever do to earn your trust, my dear?" Riku asked saccharinely, fluttering his eyelashes a little, and Roxas just snorted.

"Nothing – and I mean that literally, mate."

"I don't see why they can't just let us through just to get out of the sun for a little while! That's all I'm asking, is that too much? I wasn't made to stand around in this."

Finally, Riku couldn't stand it any longer and – no matter the fact that he was currently trying to be as subtle as possible in his attempt to sneak onto the most famous boat in recent history – he turned and looked the woman directly in the eye and asked, "You do know that it's the reason you're alive, right?"

She looked so startled that he was talking to her that his question managed to slip past her practised, snooty defences. "Pardon?"

"The sun," Riku clarified, gesturing with his chin up toward the blue sky above their heads. Beside him, Roxas gave a muted groan and turned his face away like he could pretend they weren't associated in any way. It wasn't the first time he had done that, either. "That big bright thing in the middle of the sky? It's keeping you alive right now."

The woman looked honestly lost as she asked, "Is there a purpose behind you telling me all of this?"

"Just that maybe you could be a little more grateful," Riku shrugged, and Roxas openly lifted his shoulder as best he could to shield his face from view.

The girl's eyes widened so much that Riku could see every outline of the make-up that had probably been painstakingly prepared before she had begun to perspire just enough to loosen its hold. He was about to make the mistake of commenting on that, too, but he was distracted by a muffled burst of laughter that had not come from either him or Roxas – who was usually the first person to look to as a source of any sniggering.

Instead, Riku' gaze shifted onto the bored lad who had been standing behind them throughout the entire exchange, although Riku had not been aware that he was listening to their conversation at all. Now, he glanced over to find that the boy had his palm pressed to his mouth in a blatant effort to stifle the rich laugh that had almost escaped a moment ago, and his bright ocean blue eyes were dancing with mirth as they lifted to meet Riku'.

He seemed unaware of the irritation that was building in the girl's flushed face as he stared - his smile revealing dimples that could not quite be hidden by the hand clamped over his lips – until the prim and proper young lady snapped, "Sora!"

The boy startled, dislodging a few tousled spikes that he absently smoothed away from his forehead as he turned back toward the other woman with a very unconvincing look of contriteness on his face. "I'm very sorry," he apologized instantly, lowering his head just a little bit while his shining eyes darted once back to Riku'. They flicked back to the girl's a moment later, but that one glance was so full to bursting with barely suppressed laughter that Riku bit down on his cheek to hide his grin as he turned his back again.

Only a few seconds later, their doorman with an overblown sense of importance returned with a cool look on his face and the slight flush of a man who had just been scolded. His voice was very curt as he pulled the rope barrier back and ushered them inside with a muted, "Take the bags inside and carry them below deck as you're instructed."

Riku only took the moment to throw a smug smile over his shoulder toward Roxas – unintentionally catching the gaze of the spiky-haired Sora as he did so – before he skipped lightly over the railing with a soft whistle and a suggestive wink for their stony-faced doorman as he went.

_Told you guys I had another story coming soon :) Yes this story is based on the Titanic, was it hard not to guess the story though? Come on I made it pretty obvious. And yes they all are British, well except for Axel, he's Irish! :) Tell me if you guys like it or not._


	2. Chapter 2

"Are you sure we have to find a room down here?" Roxas asked in a tense voice, as he walked alongside Riku through the dim, somewhat depressing halls that made up the far lower decks of The Titanic. They had long since left their borrowed luggage by the proper rooms and nodded their farewells to the other dock workers that went the way they should while the two others split off to bury themselves in the hulls of the ship before they could be removed. After only a glimpse at the luxurious rooms that they were delivering bags to Roxas's expression had become longing and envious of the passengers that would spend their days in the comfort of four poster beds, love seats and considerate bowls of fresh fruit that had made both their mouths water.

Unfortunately, the Irish boy's cheeks were becoming greener with every meter of space that disappeared between him and the reassuring, spacious deck that was now high, high above their heads. He had never handled small spaces particularly well, and so it was an active effort for him to continue descending further into the very slums of the rooms that were equipped for the staff aboard the ship. These quarters were only slightly better than the overheated, steaming chambers that belonged to the engines and the workers that were doomed to boil alongside the gears.

"I'm sorry, mate," Riku told his friend sympathetically, and he reached out to throw a comforting arm around Roxas's shoulders to pull his friend close. His fingers slowly kneaded out the knotted tension in the blonde boy's neck as their pace slowed a little. "It'll be alright once we get going, I promise. We can stay up on the top deck as much as you like once I've made sure that we've got somewhere to sleep down here, at least. I even can meet you up top, if you like, and you can wait up there while I sort this all out. You don't have to come with me."

Despite the ashy cast to his cheeks, Roxas shook his head tightly. "Nah, you'll only get lost if I don't come with you," he teased faintly, a hint of a grin lurking in the corners of his mouth.

Riku grinned widely, pressing his forehead to Roxas's temple briefly before he continued to walk further into the bowels of the ship. "It'll be fine, you'll see," he said confidently. "We're already on the ship now, and once we take up in the staff rooms no one will bother asking around to see if we really belong here. We'll come out some time later, wait some tables, and no one will look at us twice."

"What about that girl? The one that you poked fun at, earlier."

Riku only brushed Roxas's concern aside. "She probably didn't even realise that I was insulting her. And even if she did, I highly doubt she was paying enough attention to me that she'd be able to recognise me. Trust me, as soon as you put on a uniform they won't even look you in the face, so don't worry about it. Ah," he said suddenly, and his expression brightened as they crossed into a new, longer corridor that was lined with fairly plain wooden doors with peeling signs denoting the number of each one. "Here we go."

Roxas's lips pinched together at the sight of that looming hall, but they loosened once more as Riku' fingers stroked at his shoulders.

"It'll be alright," the older boy repeated, gently, and then eased Roxas forward as carefully as he could.

Together, they moved forward only the few meters necessary to reach the very first door that was situated on the left wall – so that Roxas would not have to delve any deeper into the endless, oppressive corridor – and then Riku did not hesitate even to knock on the wood before he turned the handle and barged straight through.

There was already someone sitting there, caught in the process of opening the small suitcase that had been lifted up onto the top bunk. There were four beds in total, with two sets of bunks lined up against both sides of the inhumanly small room, and even Riku could feel a slight claustrophobia rising around him at the sight of the squished quarters that awaited them. There was a small chest of drawers at the end of one bunk and an empty wardrobe at the base of the other, but other than that it seemed that the room was designed for the sole purpose of sleeping – and from the size of it, not particularly restfully.

At their entrance, the young, dark-haired man standing there looked up in surprise that quickly became confusion. His thick eyelashes fluttered together as he blinked. Then, "Who are you?"

The awkward silence that followed those words was as brief as they could possibly manage before Riku beamed and took a step forward to thrust out his hand in greeting. "Well, I'm Riku," he introduced himself shamelessly, just as the other boy carefully accepted his handshake. "And this is Roxas. We're supposed to be starting work here in the meantime, and they said we were supposed to come down to this room…? But if you're bothered, we can always come back—"

"No, no, it's alright," the other boy said quickly, shaking his head. "You've got as much right to be here as I have, so just… pick a bed, I suppose." He shrugged once, almost apologetically, and then waved one hand around the tiny room before he shoved himself forward to give them as much space as possible to move past him. "I'm Leon, by the way. I'm meant to be helping with the cooking here, but they've moved me onto waiter duties, instead. I don't know what they're planning."

"Mind if I take the top bunk?" Roxas interjected, and Leon waved him forward without protest. The blonde boy gratefully hauled himself up onto the higher bed and closed his eyes as a long, shuddering sigh slithered out of his lips and he proceeded to imagine that he wasn't in a tiny, closed-off death trap at the bottom of the biggest ship he had ever seen.

Riku made sure to watch that Roxas's breathing pattern slowed slightly before he calmly sat himself down on the edge of Leon's bed to look up into his face with a friendly smile. "So you're actually part of the waiting staff, now?" he asked casually. "Because we were supposed to be getting uniforms, I thought, but no one's showed me anything so far and we've already made the trek down here with the clothes on our back, pretty much. Do you know when they're supposed to be supplying them?"

A strange look flitted over the other boy's face, but there was no active suspicion in his tone when he spoke again, gesturing to the small trunk at the foot of the bed. "They should have already given them to you," he explained quietly, "but there are some spares in there if you need them. They'll probably be a bit too big for you, though," he added, casting an eye over Riku' slender frame in a scrutinising manner. "But you could always try trading off with someone."

"Thanks." Riku stood and squeezed his way over to the trunk, smiling at the sight of the folded black uniforms that were tucked into the bottom of the chest.

"You're not going to be sick, or anything, are you?" Leon asked suddenly, voice wary, and Riku glanced up to find that he was eying Roxas's prone body with no small amount of caution playing across his face. "Because we've not even left the dock yet, you know."

"It'll be fine," Roxas replied evenly, eyes closed. "I'm not going to be sick."

"He doesn't like small places," Riku replied in a stage-whisper, wincing for the sake of his uncomfortable friend, and Leon's expression lifted with comprehension.

"Oh." He paused for only a small second, and then his eyes flicked around the tiny room that they occupied with something close to amusement shining in his gaze. "I think you guys picked the wrong room, then, no offense."

A small smile curved Roxas's mouth as renewed images of large sofas and elaborate coffee tables swam in front of his mind's eye, but his voice was wistful as he said, "I think you're right about that, man."

No sooner had the words passed his lips when there was a timid knock at the door, and two other men suddenly appeared in the doorway with bewildered expressions flickering across their faces. They looked to each other first, and the back at the three men that had whipped their heads up to stare at the newcomers, and then mumbled a hasty apology before backing away again with their lips moving with queries that they had yet to voice.

"Must have had the wrong room," Leon shrugged, calmly, and then continued with his packing. He didn't notice the startled, pleased look that crossed Riku' face before the older boy mimicked the shrug and began testing uniforms against his frame experimentally.

—

"Do you think it was completely necessary for them to include rooms such as these?"

Sora had his head tipped back on his neck as he entered the luxury suite that had been hired by his parents long before they had even set foot on the deck. His steps were slow as he moved around the lavish rooms that had been offered them; watching the light streaming through the clear, circular windows on either side of the parlour to glint off of the many gilded furnishings and unnecessary decorations for what was essentially a sitting room on a big boat. There were tables set out for entertaining along with numerous gathered, cushioned chairs arranged to perfection for their arrival, and yet Sora felt it was slightly absurd to include that inside when the open deck was only a few meters away, through a set of luxurious glass doors.

"Honestly," Sora continued incredulously, shaking his head at the splendour that surrounded him, "what possible notion could they have had - upon planning the designs for this ship – that would make them believe that including an above-deck estate suite would be a necessary fixture for a liner? Did they think that we would be moving here permanently? Did they expect us to marry here and have an entire family of children that would need happy homes sometime in the near future?"

Roxas's mouth flicked upward in a small smile, but he shrugged calmly as he walked past Sora's side with only a quick pat to the younger boy's shoulders. "Perhaps they were hoping to attract some wealthy benefactors with the luxury so that they could pay for the entire ship," he suggested in a seemingly innocent tone. His expression was neutral and friendly as he flashed a smile at his friend as he leaned over and calmly picked at the fruit bowl that had been set out for their arrival.

Fortunately, they knew each other far too well for Sora to even remotely consider the possibility that he wasn't being needled for his admittedly ridiculous family. "I don't know what my father was thinking putting the wedding ahead like this – actually, I don't understand what my father was thinking creating the idea of the wedding in the first place. Roxas, you weren't there; you didn't have to listen to the way she was prattling on the entire time out in that queue."

"I'm sure Kairi has some very nice qualities," Roxas said lamely, cringing just a bit as the lie passed his lips.

Sora's reply was flat. "She began asking for some of the dock workers to hold more than one parasol over her while we waited. She was going to pay them to stand there and shield her from the sun. She was going to pay them a lot, Roxas."

"And they probably would have been happy for the extra money!"

"Not the point," Sora sighed wearily, shaking his head. His fingers rubbed along his brow in a tired gesture as he sought to ease the tension headache that tended to build there whenever he spoke about that infuriating girl. "I have trouble making it through one dinner with her at my side, and yet my father still appears to be forging ahead with the belief that I will instantly feel the need to become engaged the second that I come of age."

Roxas's smile was sympathetic, but amused. "Either that or he believes the sea air will suddenly inspire you," he added. "And maybe it will, you don't know. Perhaps Kairi is actually a wonderful girl once you remove her from the struggles and hardships of daily life. Maybe, after spending two days becoming accustomed to the shifting deck and the endless seasickness that I'm going to bet good money that she'll experience; she'll become far more reasonable. You might even like her, if you give this a chance."

"I don't want to give it a chance," Sora replied sullenly, running his fingers along a pattern in the wall with a gloomy expression pinching at his features. "There is no amount of salt water on this Earth that would make me want to marry her. It's far more likely that they have hopes to trap me on a vessel when my birthday comes so that I can't escape when they 'unexpectedly' push the idea forward."

"Either way," Roxas said steadily, "I don't see what choice you have but to at least try not to loathe her outright. Or at the very least, not show it outwardly while we're all together on this trip because I don't want to be the one trying to keep you from throwing her overboard."

"I'd give her a boat," Sora protested, defensively.

"I'm afraid that's not the incredible good deed you seem to think it is, Sora." The younger boy's eyes narrowed resentfully, even as he continued picking at the wall decorations. "Besides, since you've already been having dinner with her family nearly every week for the past three months, I can't see why it will be so hard to keep civil to her for this trip."

"You obviously haven't spent much time around her recently. Although," he added, smiling slightly, "it was worth the rest of the hours we spent waiting just for the look on her face when that worker spoke to her."

Roxas's eyebrows rose questioningly. "What are you talking about? What worker?"

"Oh, nothing," Sora sighed absently, batting a vague hand in Roxas's direction to brush his concerns aside. "It's not important, and not worth repeating if you weren't there to see it firsthand." His smile grew into a full blown grin, though, and the other boy only shook his head in bemusement at his friend's strange behaviour. Wealth favoured the eccentric, however, and so there was little point in trying to train him out of it when he had already spent most of his childhood education becoming accustomed to – and fond of - the boy's various 'unusual' traits.

Sighing again, Sora moved through the French doors at the end of the sitting room so that he could emerge onto the decking beyond; inhaling the briny scent of the ocean as he did so. The wind was not harsh, but it bit at his skin slightly as it slid up from the ocean and settled on his cheeks.

"It's pleasant up here, at least," Roxas commented, as he came to stand beside the younger boy and leant his elbows against the railing. From their position, he could see both out into the sea that stretched out beyond the confines of the ship, and the other decks that sat far below them. The different levels slotted together nicely, and if he craned his neck Roxas could glance down the length of the ship to the other decks that were open to the public, rather than the small balconies that protruded from each room that was expensive enough to account for that private space. "Look, we could probably see Kairi's rooms from here, if you're interested. If only to help you avoid her when she's coming to see you."

Sora only looked over at those last words, a new hope sparking in his eyes, but his gaze caught at the small rowboats that he could see strapped up to various places along the decking. They were there in case of emergency, but Sora found himself trying to gauge how much strength would be required to bring one down from its cradle and lower it straight into the water.

"How far to shore do you think I'd make it if I started paddling as soon as we set off?" he mused aloud, tapping his chin with one hand.

"About three meters," Roxas answered. At Sora's indignant look, he added, "I was there when you attempted canoeing as a new hobby, remember? That was a disaster, and you nearly had me drowned if I recall correctly. It's certainly not something I want to see happen again because you're too afraid of your fiancé."

Sora's response was as swift as it was predictable. "She's not my fiancé," he corrected him, hotly, and then calmed almost immediately. He was terrible at keeping a temper with anything. "And it would probably play out far better if you helped me row. That's true, at least."

With a small laugh, Roxas pushed up from the railing so that he could turn back to their rooms. "After dinner, maybe," he allowed. "But since I'm here with as much of your father's money as my own, I figure that I owe him at least one attempt at trying to make you behave." Pointedly, he reached for the pretty glass doors and held them open with a familiar, paternal look of rebuke that had Sora striding his way back toward his luggage with a melodramatic shuffling and slouching on his way through. Roxas did not startle when he received a flick to the neck for his efforts at keeping his friend in line.

Later that night, only a half-hour into their four-course supper, Sora already regretted his decision not to row his way out of the Titanic and hurry back to the home that he had left behind. His aunt and uncle were caring for the manor while they took their much extended trip to the United States for a time, and so he highly doubted that they would turn him away upon finding him standing on his own doorstep; bedraggled and horrified by the monotony that he had been subjected to. Alone amongst the rest of his family, they might actually understand why he had no real desire to remain trapped on a large boat with people that he wasn't very comfortable sharing a large estate with on any given day.

And that was while he was discounting the fact that he was now spending an unbroken period of time with Kairi at his side. In any other circumstance, she was a tolerable girl. She was conceited and patronising, rude and often cruel to other people, but he could stand her presence because he couldn't bring himself to be actively disrespectful to any girl in his life – it had literally been ingrained in him to be polite. However, his resolve was being tested by that simpering laugh and the icy smile that she sent around the dining table.

"I think it's absolutely lovely here, don't you?" his mother commented, when the silence stretched on for a few long minutes with only the muted clinking of cutlery against ceramic and the occasional tinkling of a wine glass batting against bejewelled fingers.

At the head of the table, his father only managed a small shrug. "It's perfectly adequate, I suppose," he replied in a bored tone. It was not unusual; that weary, perpetually unimpressed pitch seemed the only one that he was capable of, in Sora's experience.

"I thought that they could have made the quarters with a little bit more space than they have," Kairi spoke up, from behind the rim of her glass as she took a dainty sip that let no liquid pass her painted lips. Despite that, she gave a small noise of contentment as if she enjoyed the rich wine that she had not yet tasted. "They described my room as a luxury suite, but it's quite a bit smaller than I imagined that it would be. That, and I almost wish that I'd brought my own bed with me onto this voyage. I doubt I'll get any sleep tonight, after looking at the state of that mattress."

"Order some extra pillows if you're dissatisfied," his father told her. His greying eyebrows drew into the lightest frown imaginable as he sliced up his steak with one swift cut of his knife. "If the service is not up to your expectations of it, then someone isn't doing their job properly. It's no fault of yours if you'd like what you asked for."

Kairi's smile was beatific, like a little girl beaming at her own father. "You're absolutely right. I believe I'll do just that as soon as I have the opportunity."

"You're not eating, Sora," his mother said quietly, from across the table, and that sentence jarred him back into the uncomfortable awareness that he was, in fact, not sitting a stranger's evening meal and observing their incomprehensible behaviour from a distance. He was related to them, and nearly betrothed to another.

"I'm sorry," he apologised out of habit, and then moved to pick at his meal in a show of compliance.

His father paused at the other side of the table for the first time since the main course had been set in front of him, and glanced up from other his plate to point at his son with the gristly point of his knife. "Perhaps you could sort this matter out for her," he said firmly, and Sora knew that it was not a suggestion. Kairi turned that sweet smile onto him, letting her rouged cheeks stretch with the adoring look they both knew was a complete affectation. "After all, it's time that you learnt how to provide properly for a woman such as this. You might as well get some practise at it while we're here, and you need to start learning how to think about someone other than yourself, for once. You're not a child anymore."

As a particularly vivid fantasy of driving that juice-soaked cutlery into his father's eye flashed through his mind, Sora was inclined to agree with that statement. However, all that came from his mouth was a docile, "Yes, Father."

"And now he's hiding his thoughts again." His father's eyes met Kairi's with the warmth that he reserved for the one person on Earth that was just as awful as he was, and the two shared a smile. "He hasn't yet got the guts to say it to my face just yet, but he'll get there one day. Either that or there really isn't any other thought underneath those ridiculous spikes of his."

At that, Sora's mother sent her husband a warning look that went ignored.

"Isn't that right, my boy?" he pressed, smiling like he wasn't insulting the son that he had never wanted.

"Yes, Father," Sora repeated blandly, smiling right back at him without hesitation. Their eyes stayed locked for only a few moments, before his father grunted and turned back to his meal with unconcealed disappointment clouding the eyes that focussed on his steak once more. When he spoke again, it was only to Kairi and Sora's mother sent him a sympathetic look over the gravy boat while Sora sat and wondered if he could swim back the way he came. At this point, he imagined that he would be perfectly willing to do just that, no matter how much distanced they had already crossed in the few hours that they had been underway.

However, he had no other choice but to sit there quietly and draw as little attention to himself as he wondered why his father didn't simply go and marry Kairi himself if he liked her so much, so that he and his mum could go off and live by themselves somewhere. He didn't care about any disgrace that came down upon them as long as he could look after her on his own and leave the two human-shaped monstrosities that chatted happily about all of the problems they'd found with the boat so far.

Sora only looked up from his increasingly scattered plate when he heard the truly blessed words, "More wine?"

"Plea—" he instantly began to say, but he cut off as he caught sight of the waiter that was standing on the opposite side of the table, wine bottle held in long fingers that didn't look naturally placed on the smooth glass. It did not take long for the young man's gaze to lift and meet Sora's, and it took even less for Sora to realise why he felt familiarity nagging at his senses. He recognised that tanned face, even though his clothing had changed, and he instinctively knew from the other boy's expression that he wasn't meant to.

The boy's brow creased for a flashing instant, and his mouth shifted in what looked suspiciously like a mumbled curse.

Sora stared at him for too long, though, and Kairi's quick eyes soon lifted to look between the waiter's face and his own several times. She didn't react, though, despite the fact that she had been the one speaking directly to that 'dock worker' earlier, and there was absolutely no recognition in the cool expression that she sent his way; pencilled eyebrows lifting delicately.

"Is there a problem, Sora?" she asked politely.

He fought the smile from his face as he shook his head, dropping his gaze to his plate until he was sure that his amusement was gone from his expression. "No, not at all," he told her after a moment of struggle. Then, his gaze snapped onto the other boy's. "Can I have some more wine over here, please?"

The waiter's smile was stiff. "Of course."

Sora had to lift his hand to his mouth to cover his smirk as he watched the other boy walk around the table so that he could hastily pour wine into the glass. The liquid sloshed up the sides and sent a few drops flicking out onto the table cloth, so that Sora had to stifle another laugh as he quickly lifted his napkin and casually tossed it over the new stain to conceal it. Not another person at the table noticed a thing, and so he took the brief moment of distraction to tilt his head slightly toward the boy that was now sucking a droplet of wine from the blade of his finger as no real staff member would ever do.

"You're not supposed to be here, are you?" Sora muttered in a soft aside, his bright eyes flicking up to meet the carefully bewildered gaze of the young man above him.

"Sorry, did you say you wanted another napkin?" he replied, leaning forward with concern written all over his features. The last time Sora had seen him so close, that face had been twisted with mischief and a carelessly cheeky grin as he needled an obliviously whiny Kairi, and now Sora had absolutely no reservations about that fact. They were definitely the same person, and that meant that the other boy had somehow slipped onto the ship without anyone noticing – to become the least subtle stowaway in maritime history, it seemed.

A few strange impulses sparked in Sora's mind for several long seconds, but then as Kairi's curiosity got the better of her and she glanced back to stare at them, he decided that it was not worth giving him away to the vultures that he served for the moment.

So, "Yes, I did," he said, pitching his voice to normal volume once more. "And actually, if you could stay close that would be helpful."

For the rest of the night, Riku hovered at Sora's shoulder until it became clear that he was only there to satisfy the whims of the young lordling that had been so unenthused with the rest of his family. He brought a fresh napkin to replace the last, stained cloth that had been sacrificed to mop up the spilt wine, and though his services quickly became obsolete after that moment with the new round of courses that were brought out by far more experienced waiting staff; Sora always seemed to find some reason to call him back into the room before he could make an escape.

Outside on the pier, Riku had felt some interest in the boy that had not shied away from the sun and that had laughed so openly when Riku had teased the girl that he now waited on. He had liked the boy's blue eyes and easy smile, and he had even considered the possibility that someone who could grin at someone below their station might have been a decent human being on the whole – that would not stoop to such pettiness to torment another human being with requests for more salad or more butter for his bread when he had to know that Riku wanted nothing more than to leave. There was real enjoyment in his face, though, and he seemed to take a real delight in watching Riku trying to muddle his way through the practises that his imaginary experience as a waiter had not given him any knowledge of.

It was only when the dessert came out on pretty, shining trays worth more than Riku' current wardrobe that he was able to finally slip away before Sora could realise that he was gone. The annoying girl – who he quickly learned was named 'Kairi' – had caught his attention to ask whether or not they should skip the last meal in order to explore the deck and the other events that were taking place over the boat, and Riku had shoved his tea towel and serving fork into the hands of the nearest server before he turned and swiftly strode away.

Going back through the kitchens would have involved walking straight back in front of Sora's line of sight, and so he simply turned and whisked himself out past a row of conveniently placed ferns and through the dimly lit doors that led out onto the balcony. The air was still and cold with the water swirling around him, but it was profoundly more preferable than the warmth of the dining hall and he found that he didn't mind feeling the cool wind. He had already bound his shirt to his frame with a few hidden pins so that it would look somewhat less like a sail draped over his chest, and so there was no way for it to slither up over his spine.

Despite the inherent brilliance of his plan to hide out until they all moved to their smoking rooms or their dancing - or whatever other ridiculous rituals that the upper class put themselves through in the name of decorum – Riku quickly found himself becoming bored as well as chilly as he stood out there. He amused himself by walking back and forth as far as the boardwalk went before he came in front of one of the windows again, which would involve him being very much obvious to those still eating within the hall, and then pacing back again.

Then, with a weary sigh, he turned and flopped himself over the barrier of the balcony.

The metal bar dug into his hipbones as he hunched over the railing, but there was something oddly comforting about letting his whole weight dangle over that bar while his toes just barely brushed the decking that shifted beneath his feet. His body rocked back and forth, dangerously lax, and he could hear the quiet slapping of the water that washed against the edges of the boat, so far down beneath his head. He couldn't see those waves, but he could listen to them as he hung there and contemplated whether he had made an incredible mistake in coming on this boat in the first place.

"Well, I'm certainly not going to jump after you if you fall in."

Funnily enough, that statement nearly did make him fall over the edge as Riku startled. He had to snatch at the rail again before he could tip straight forward, and his heart gave an exhilarating little leap in his chest as his feet left the floor completely and his stomach swooped.

Once he was safely on two feet once more, he turned around to look at the figure that was standing in the threshold back to the dining quarters, head canted curiously. Though the man's face was partly hidden in shadow, the lights that streamed behind him illuminated the tousled spikes that shone with that golden candlelight and made him absolutely impossible not to recognise, even if his low, murmuring voice hadn't already given his identity away immediately. Moreover, there was no other stranger aboard that would have any reason or inclination to follow Riku out onto the balcony after dinner.

"I just thought you should know that now," Sora continued calmly, "in case you had any ideas about leaping out for a quick swim while the rest of us are inside."

Riku snorted under his breath, and his sarcastic reply tumbled out of his mouth before he had the good sense to bow his way out of the conversation. "Yes, because that's what all of us common folk like to do after dinner. First there's the suicidal jump off of the boat into the freezing cold water beneath, and then we all start playing Russian roulette downstairs, below deck, with all of the chambers full. If you're really lucky, you might catch someone climbing the rigging with a safety rope tied around their neck, just for a laugh."

Somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind, Riku wondered why he had the compulsive need to say these things to people that could make his life extremely difficult.

However, on this particular occasion, he wasn't greeted with steaming ears or a glowering expression that purpled with rage. A slight blush did touch the younger boy's cheeks, but it was only due to the stunned laugh that broke out of his mouth before he could help it. "Do you always talk to people like this?" he asked. "Or is it just my good fortune to stumble across your path whenever you're feeling particularly hostile?"

"Both, I expect," Riku told him, honestly.

Sora still looked slightly incredulous, as if he couldn't possibly comprehend how someone could speak to bluntly. "And it doesn't bother you that I could have you reported for being a stowaway with only a few words to my father? You might not be arrested until we finally make it to the end of the journey, of course, but they'd most likely keep you locked up below deck for the remainder of the trip. I already know that you're not meant to be here."

Riku made no effort to deny the claim. "It only bothers me that you haven't done it already."

"Would you like me to do it now?" Sora responded, and then angled his body so that he could jerk one thumb over his shoulder toward the hall that he had just vacated. The shift let the light play across his face for the first time, revealing the utter confusion that had twisted in his expression.

An exasperated sigh fell from Riku' lips as he shook his head, leaning back against the railing as if the effort of speaking was too much for him to stay upright. "No," he said wearily, "I only meant that if you're going to throw me in cuffs I don't see why you're waiting around and talking to me about it. I'd rather you went ahead and did it rather than stringing me along. Although," he added, and his voice softened suddenly as he took one single step toward the other boy, "if you do, please make sure that you leave my friend out of it. He really didn't want to come, and I practically shoved him onto the boat. He's got nothing to do with it at all. It was all my idea."

Sora was quiet for a long minute, and his eyes were alight with interest even in the dimness. They roamed over Riku' face several times, taking in the pinched look to the older boy's features and the earnest concern that simmered in his gaze as he stared hard into Sora's face. The light poured over him completely now that Sora had stepped aside, and his eyes were an incredible blue against the steely backdrop of the moonlit ocean.

"And if I told you that I didn't want to turn you in?" Sora finally said, and his tone was almost nervous as he spoke.

Riku' brow pulled together into a confused, puckered line. "What do you mean by that?" he asked suspiciously.

Sora spoke as clearly as he was capable of, fighting the inexplicable smile that was tugging at the very corners of his mouth. "What would it mean to you if I chose not to tell my father that you aren't supposed to be here, and if I let you – and your friend – stay on without any undue mention? As much as I can manage, in any case. I can't keep them from finding out indefinitely."

The older boy's voice whipped out; swift, harsh and untrusting. "Why would you do that?"

"Because… I don't need to, I suppose," Sora replied, lamely. "And this way, you could owe me a favour, if I need one." The words sounded more questioning than they did intimidating, no matter how he tried to inject some confidence into his tone. He was not used to feeling so unbalanced around other people, let alone someone that should have been insignificant to his nobly trained gaze, but he could feel his cheeks warming with embarrassment as he stumbled over the untrue words that were the first to spring to mind.

"Like what?" Riku demanded instantly. The mistrust in his expression only eased because curiosity began to seep forth, instead; marking his gaze with an interest that Sora had not prepared himself for beforehand.

"Like…" He was not nearly as collected as he had been inside, and he floundered for some sort of deed – any sort, really – that he would need the other boy to perform. Short of providing some much needed entertainment in the form of annoying his relatives, he could barely summon any excuse to mind. "Like you could act as my valet for the next few days?" he suggested, cringing even as the words passed his lips.

Riku' frown deepened once more, and there was more than mere suspicion forming in those features, now. "Valet?" he repeated, his lips twisting slightly as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth. "Is that like a servant? Are you asking me to serve you for the next few days on your journey, young master?" he asked scornfully, and he even added a small bow that had his hand fluttering between them as he lowered his head in a parody of deferential courtesy. His expression was cold when it lifted back up again.

"It was just a suggestion—" Sora began, but he was cut off almost immediately.

"Yeah, well, if that's your only suggestion I'd like to kindly request that you slap me in irons now," Riku stated bluntly. He pressed his wrists together and held them out, his eyebrows twitching up daringly as he offered them up in Sora's direction. The younger boy only stared at them until Riku let them fall back to his sides again, his voice bursting out of him with a mixture of amusement and affront. "Because, honestly, I'd prefer being locked in some dirty little hole below deck, hidden far down with the engines, than spend the next few days of my life as your personal whipping boy. I've enough pride to go down to the police and beg for a pardon on my hands and knees, like any other self-respecting criminal would."

A small silence bubbled up between them as he came to a stop, leaning lightly against the railing once more, and then Sora shrugged in the darkness. "Do you have a different idea?"

"You could simply let me go on my merry way," Riku pointed out, his lips curling up into a smirk, "and just forget that we were here. I promise not to crash any more of your little gatherings in future."

"I could," Sora acknowledged, nodding.

Riku' voice was resigned. "But you aren't going to, are you?"

"It doesn't seem that way."

With a sigh, the older boy let his head fall back on his neck so that he could stare straight up into the starry night sky. His fingers drummed restlessly on the metal bar at his back several times as he lingered there, a thoughtful noise humming in his throat, and his expression was considering when he lowered his head to look at Sora in the eye. "Well, there has to be some sort of seedy dealing that you want taken care of," he said bluntly, shrugging both shoulders. "Isn't there someone on here that you want to torture? I could spread nasty rumours through the ship, if you like, or pour salt into someone's meal for you? I'm sure I could find some rats somewhere on board to slip into someone's bed."

Sora's eyebrows and voice both climbed as he listened to that list, and he was surprised by how offended he felt by those nonchalant words. "Is that really your opinion of me?" he demanded, unable to keep the outrage out of his voice completely. "That that's the only thing I could possibly have need of on this ship?"

Riku didn't answer, and Sora's face fell ever so slightly.

"You don't like me very much," the younger boy stated, not quite a question. "Do you?"

Riku gave a very exaggerated shrug, and pressed his lips together. "Let's go over the events of tonight, shall we? Since you've come out here, you've implied that I'm stupid enough to jump off of a balcony—" Without turning, he jabbed his hand over his shoulder to gesture to the ocean. Instantly, Sora's mouth opened with a protest, but the older boy only continued speaking. "—and then went on to blackmail me with the knowledge that I was too poor to get a ticket on this boat for my friend and I, and then your way of me to keep from imprisonment – the first thing that came to your mind upon how I could make it up to you, was that I could be your servant. You don't even have anything in mind for me to do, do you? But your first thought was for how I – a lowly little commoner – could work for you; could be even more obedient than before. That's not mentioning the way you had me running around in there, so I'm sorry if I'm not exactly enjoying your company that much right now, sir, but I liked you a hell of a lot more when you weren't talking." His tone made it sound as though he was incredibly disappointed; like Sora had done him some sort of wrong by not living up to his expectations.

Sora waited until the other boy trailed to a finish before he crisply asked, "Are you done?"

He received only a jerky nod in reply.

Throughout that strangely bitter reply, Sora had to bite down on several, defensive objections to what was being stated so plainly and even had to swallow the impulse to apologise several times and explain that he had only been trying to make conversation. However, he did not try to voice any of those excuses as he stood and took a step forward to extend a stiff hand, instead.

"Hello," he said, lifting his voice with a feigned politeness and curiosity that he found was still simmering somewhere beneath his current, frustrated shame. "My name is Sora Anderson. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Riku stared at his proffered hand, first, and then at his face for several seconds. He frowned again, but his lips were twitching slightly with a smile that he obstinately refused to show. "Is that really how you greet people where you're from?" he asked after a moment, with thinly veiled amusement ringing in his voice. "It's no wonder you looked so bored inside, if that's how you get to know people."

"It works for us," Sora replied, leaving his hand hovering awkward in the air between them.

"I have to be honest; that sounds even more dull."

Despite his words, though, Riku stepped forward and clasped Sora's hand in both of his own with a polite – very mocking – smile for the boy that he had already put to shame only a few seconds ago. Already, the irritation that had flared in his face had been replaced by a seemingly genuine friendliness. "My name is Riku Dawson, and it's lovely to meet you, too, Mr Anderson."

Sora would have been more than happy to accept that relatively amiable response, but when moved to take his hand back lest he offend the older boy even more; Riku shifted forward with the movement, instead, and reached an arm around the younger boy's shoulders to draw him into a hug. Sora suspected that the gesture was borne more out of a desire to make him uncomfortable than anything else, but it wasn't an entirely unpleasant surprise as he was suddenly jerked forward against the other boy's body. His eyes widened over Riku' shoulder, not prepared for the strange affection, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with his hands as he stood within the circle of unfamiliar arms that naturally fell around his frame with more warmth than he had ever received from anyone in his family.

Then, "You've never been hugged in your life, have you?" Riku guessed, as he withdrew from the embrace a moment later. He did not give Sora a chance to respond – with what would have undoubtedly been a lie, anyway – before his voice dropped lower and he murmured, "Well, Sora Anderson, tell me: are you any good at playing cards?"

Sora weighed the different options open to him before he replied, "I'm terrible. I can't bluff," he explained sheepishly.

"Perfect!" Riku exclaimed happily, throwing both hands up in a triumphant gesture. "Come with me."

Without any more warning than that, the older boy turned on his heel and cheerfully strolled back down the floorboards that circled around the dining hall; neglecting the inviting door that awaited them for the darkened walkways that lead further down on the ship. Sora's eyes darted back and forth several times, but he found that his feet carried him forward to follow after Riku whether he wanted them to or not – and somehow, the fact that he was supposed to be inside with his parents and potential wife slipped completely from his mind as he did.

_No, this story will not feature AkuRoku. It's mainly SoraxRiku :) Comments and reviews would be great!_


	3. Chapter 3

Though he would not have admitted it, Sora felt a strange thrill of excitement as he followed the older boy through the ship, bouncing along at his heels even as Riku continuingly glanced back to make sure that he hadn't lost the spiky-haired lad down any of the corridors. He knew that he should have been left far behind with his family, and that his mother at least would be worried about where he had disappeared to, but Riku was humming absently under his breath as they walked and he was descending further into the levels of the ships than he had made it so far without getting judgemental stares from the other people that watched him go. With Riku there, they gave not a second glance to the boy still dressed with his waistcoat and slightly askew bowtie that marked him as someone that should not have been there at all.

However, as the corridors narrowed and the noise of the engines became far more aggressive than the pleasant hum they had been on the top deck of the ship, he could not help but slow his excited pace slightly as his Roxass skittered around their surroundings.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" he finally asked, as they circled another staircase that took them one step closer into the bowels of the ship. "Should I be concerned for my safety right about now?"

Riku only laughed, brightly, and threw a smile over his shoulder as he skipped lightly down the last few steps and landed on the next deck; spinning on his heel to face Sora directly as the younger boy stopped on the last stair. "It's just a card game," he promised, hand on heart. "It might not be the nicest of locations, I'll admit – and if you'd like to rent out on of your rooms for the occasion, you go right ahead – but we're not about to throw you under the boat, or anything. We are just normal lads here."

Sora almost felt mollified by those easy going words and that flashing smile, but then Riku' nose wrinkled and he lifted one shoulder in a shrug as he added, "Well, most of us. Some of them are a bit dodgy. But it'll be fun!"

The older boy made an odd gesture then; reaching his hand out as if about to seize Sora's fingers with his own, but he stopped himself a moment too soon. His brow creased ever so slightly as if he had somehow confused himself with the action, and then simply shook the bewildered expression away with another grin and a beckoning gesture before he continued on down the humid corridors. Sora didn't want to think about how close they were to the rumbling engines, judging by that warmth to the air, but somehow – foolishly- his feet continued to carry him along after Riku as if he had no choice in the matter.

"Not long now," Riku told him cheerfully, after they rounded a few more corners in the hall, and Sora jumped as a sudden, load groaning sound exploded through the wall to his left. It sounded like the gears were grinding together, and though he had a very limited knowledge about the nature of any sort of mechanics of a liner; he felt that it should not have been making that kind of noise while they were so far out in the ocean.

Almost, Sora stopped and asked if Riku were really sure that they were safe where he was being taken. He now felt apprehensive enough that he could just barely stomach the idea of tapping Riku' shoulder and meekly asking if they could return to the deck so that he could breathe some fresh air. He even thought he might be able to ask if the older boy wanted to do something else with their time, if they could find something else to do to make up for Sora's offense rather than slowly drowning in the thick air of the lower levels.

However, before he could, a startlingly vivid mental image of his father sprung to mind; bringing with it a slew of cringe-worthy emotions that literally made his nervousness shrivel up inside of him within seconds. He thought of returning back to his suite so that he could spend the rest of the night unpacking his clothes and complaining to Roxas about how much he hated his life – and in doing so, he regained the enthusiasm that he had lost a moment ago. It abruptly occurred to him that he had never come close to doing anything like this in his life before, even putting aside the fact that he was putting trust in a very new stranger that – apart from an unexpected embrace – had shown no small amount of contempt for him, and that thought was not as horrifying as it should have been.

"Are we nearly there?" he asked suddenly, his face stretching into a beaming smile that startled him as much as it did the boy that glanced back to meet it with one of his own.

"Almost," Riku replied. His mood seemed to lift along with Sora's, and he even paused for several seconds to wait for the other boy to catch up so that he could rest a hand on his shoulder and pull him in closer as they walked more slowly. "The first thing you need to know," he said in a low voice, "is that you don't talk directly to the other guys while you're in the middle of the game. They'll have a bit of a go at you at first, a bit of cheek, but after that you just sit there and you let me do the talking for you."

"Done," Sora agreed, without hesitation.

Riku looked mildly surprised by his acquiescence, but pleased nonetheless. "Good. That was easier than I thought it'd be. Axel never shuts up. A friend," he explained quickly, at Sora's blank look, and waved the matter aside with a breezy hand. "Don't worry, you can meet him later if he's not already in there now. But the point is; don't trust your instincts, and listen to me while we're in there, alright?"

"Are you imagining that I'm suddenly going to turn rogue and start stealing money out from under you?" Sora returned dryly, lifting both Roxasbrows in question as his voice thickened with amusement. "Or that I'll somehow believe that I'm far more skilled than I was before?"

Riku' smile was small and withheld. "You might," he allowed pointedly, but he did not try and hide the enjoyment that danced across his features.

They walked only a few more meters before Riku suddenly stopped them both in front of a non-descript door in the wall, its paint peeling off in long strips around the top of the doorframe. His hand squeezed Sora's shoulder slightly before he released it, and he quirked his Roxasbrow playfully at the younger boy before he leant forward to turn to the doorhandle – and then stopped.

"Oh, and I should probably ask this first," he said liltingly, "but have you got any specific objections to me trying to cheat these men out of their money? I should warn you now that they're mostly going to involve you and your face from here on in."

"My face?"

Riku nodded easily, as if it were an everyday concept. "Your face is just perfect for this. Even I wouldn't think you were a dirty cheater – which I'm sure you're not, of course – but if I can do the bluffing for you, then you just sit there and smile while I rob them blind."

Sora paused, considered it, and then shrugged both shoulders. "Alright."

Again, Riku looked startled. He continued making outrageous, over-confidence assumptions, Sora noticed, but he always seemed so sincerely shocked when Sora had no objections to the plans that were being laid out in front of him. He had to wonder why Riku had even brought him along in the first place if he had not thought that he would agree to the very reason for his presence; if he had thought that Sora wouldn't agree to facilitate his cheating, what was the point of him coming along?

"Alright," Riku repeated, in a tone that was almost impressed, and his Roxas brows climbed his forehead in a way that Sora was sure he wasn't supposed to notice as Riku turned to open the door again.

Beyond that entranceway was about what Sora expected; which wasn't very much of anything. It was just a tiny, closed-off room consisting of a small bar pushed up against the far wall and a large, round table that was situated in the centre of the room, taking up most of the space allotted to them. It was stuffy, and slightly smoky with the cigarettes that had been inexplicably lit in the windowless space, and there was more than a faint odour clinging in the air from the burly men that sat around the table in a circle. Their heads lifted the second he and Riku entered, and one or two gave a small grunt of recognition at the sight of the lithe youth before letting their gazes fall back to the cards clamped in their meaty fists.

In all honesty, glancing from Riku to those scruffy, unkempt mammoths was more startling than Sora was prepared for, given how smooth-shaved and smiling he was – and that was when Sora realised how he must have seemed, standing awkwardly on the sidelines while Riku strode forward and beamed at them all in turn.

"Hello, lads!" he exclaimed happily, arms spread wide like they weren't practically growling at his joyful presence. "I can already see you didn't wait for me, but don't worry, I've already forgiven you for that. In fact, I've brought a new player to this cheery table for you." Riku flashed a thumbs-up in Sora's direction, gesturing for him to stay put, and then leaned forward so that his head was level with the other players. Though he theatrically lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper; his tone was still pitched loud enough that Sora could hear every word carrying through the humid air as the older boy faux-whispered, "He's completely loaded, believe me. I already felt out his wallet earlier, and if we can do this right you'll be stuffing money everywhere you can before we go. I'll make sure he doesn't do well."

Normally, Sora would have felt a stab of betrayal and hurt somewhere in his gut upon hearing those words. He had enough prior experience with the backstabbing, pretentious snobs that made up his boarding school back in England – Roxas's kind self being excluded in that description, of course – and so he knew how it felt to realise that someone had only been feigning interest for selfishness and superficial interest rather than any real kindness. It would have made sense to him that Riku was only preening him as a mark for a scam to steal his money.

But Sora didn't have his wallet on him.

He distinctly remembered leaving it in his rooms, because he had gone to tuck it into his pocket out of habit before realising that he was on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and there were no amount of crisp notes that would be able to fix that for him even if he felt like waving that money around like the pretentious arse his father wanted him to become. So while he would have felt relieved in understanding Riku' apparent liking of him; he knew that it was not his money that had brought him into that stuffy little room.

"Come on," Riku urged them in a whisper, when the others still showed a belligerent reluctance on their faces. "It's easy money, and you've already started a game. Just let us slip in, and he'll practically do your work for you – with a little push, that is."

It took another minute of cajoling, as Sora wiped the misty sweat that was forming on his forehead from the sticky heat of the room, but they finally gave a slight shrug and shoved some more chairs around the table so that they could squeeze into the game. They were pushed so closely together on one side that Riku was practically sitting in his lap, but Sora only found that he suddenly had an arm draped around his shoulders where there hadn't been one before. Again, he felt so disarmed by the casual gestures that he wasn't sure whether to be grateful or unnerved by the physical affection; Roxas was rarely so hands-on, despite the fact that Sora considered him his best friend, and so he wasn't entirely sure whether he was supposed to react that way to the feeling of fingers picking absently at his sleeve as they sat there.

"Go on, deal him in," Riku urged the men quietly, as the cards were shuffled back in a haphazard pile. His fingers still toyed with Sora's shirt. "And don't start with any of those special decks or anything, because I know what cheating looks like, Luxord – and do you have to smoke that disgusting thing around us all?" he demanded suddenly, his cheeks blowing out as he huffed out a sigh.

Luxord paused in his shuffling, and then very deliberately puffed out a cloud of cigar smoke into Riku' face before he stuck the smoke into the side of his mouth and left it there.

"Here," came another gruff voice, and Sora glanced down to find a shot glass being sloshed into the table in front of him with a small clank. The strong smell of sprits pierced through the smoky haze, and the clear liquid looked deceptively innocent as it rippled within the tiny glass.

A small, discomfited sound echoed in Riku' throat. "Ah. You don't have to drink that," he muttered quietly, before raising his voice to add, "Look, boys, Sora here has got this problem where—" He cut short, blinking in surprise as he watched the younger boy calmly lifted the glass and knock it back down his mouth with only the slightest throat-clearing to show for the burning that scorched through him. He placed it back down on the table, upside down, and licked the remaining alcohol off of his lips before he smiled at the surprised expressions that flickered around the table.

"What?" he murmured, as he met Riku' slightly stunned gaze. "I went to Eton for the last six years; no one gets out of that place alive without learning how to manage a drink or two. It's the only way you can get away with it, if they can't tell if you've had anything or not."

Again, Riku sent him that look that was part surprise and part awe before he gathered his expression into a neutral mask again and shrugged at the other men around the table. A moment later, Sora was dealt both a small, grubby pair of cards and another shot filled to the brim. He took both manfully, and silently, and his drink was almost instantly replaced the second he put it down. However, when he tried to reach for it; Riku' hand caught his and stopped it in mid-air, with only the slightest shake of his head and a hint of a bemused smile.

"Not a good idea," he advised softly, and then quickly swallowed the portion back himself before he set the glass out of reach. He then edged forward, nearly resting his arm atop Sora's as he peered at the cards in the younger boy's hand, and the table fell silent as the game began.

In all honesty, Sora's short-lived expectations for the game – and, more accurately, for Riku' deception – were far worse than the reality of the game that continued around him. For the fairly drawn-out beginning of that poker game, Riku did little more than toss Sora's cards out and disqualify him before he could try. Only a few times did he get beyond the first few rounds, and then he folded whenever it seemed that Sora would actually have a decent hand offered to him. Little by little, their borrowed chip pile diminished into just a handful of disks that rolled around Riku' palm as he sat there, still humming a vaguely merry tune under his breath as he looked around the table.

Then, as Sora received his new pair of cards with an admittedly loose smile for the man that was slightly blurry at the edges – his shot glass had miraculously found its way toward the bottle once more – he felt something grip the inside of his leg, just above the knee, and he gave a strangled noise of surprise as the cards flicked out of fumbling hands immediately.

"Whoa," Riku laughed, and his hands instantly shot out to gather them back with the briefest of suspicious looks flickering over his face as he glanced around the table. "Sorry, mate, I thought that was the table leg. Roxas' down," he added in a wary voice, jabbing an accusatory finger at their opponents as he slid the cards back into a loose pile for Sora.

Sora was watching the other men as he did so, careful not to let the undersides flip up, and so he barely managed to cover another undignified squawk as he looked down to find that his cards had completely changed from the fairly unhelpful pair that he had been given a few seconds ago. He hadn't even seen where the first cards had gone – Riku had no sleeves, after all – but they were suddenly missing where they had been on the table moments earlier. Somehow, knowing that Riku had to have switched them in the process of sliding them across didn't ease the burning curiosity about how he had done that while everyone was watching.

The game continued like that far a surprisingly long amount of time.

Riku didn't have to pinch his leg again in order to create a distraction as he had that first time, but he gave small signals that let them gradually win back a lot of the chips that they had lost initially. Each time, the older lad would breathe a tiny, frustrated sigh that Sora almost believed was genuinely annoyed; had it not been for the tiny smirk that followed, when he watched the disks being slid over the table. Eventually, the other men started placing straight notes on the wooden surface in place of the chips they had lost – albeit, grudgingly and with a scowls that might have made Sora nervous about continuing, had it not been for the very strong vodka warming his belly and his cheeks.

Unfortunately, as ever, the first instinct of any man when faced with an inexplicable winning streak in their opponent was to immediately assume that there was some sort of foul play occurring. While it might have been manageable in any other circumstance, they were cheating, and Sora was having an increasingly difficult time not giggling every time the other players failed to notice the way that Riku was peering at their cards or the subtle movements that let him swap the cards out by reaching between Sora's hands. It seemed so obvious from where he was sitting that it was ridiculous that those big, tough men could not see how blatantly Riku was fooling them all.

And, really, Sora hadn't even put down any money from his imaginary, 'loaded' wallet since they sat down. It was all too easy.

Then, "Hang on." One of the larger men, Xaldin, scratched at the coarse beard on his chin as he stared at the cards that had been accidentally turned over as Sora flicked them across toward the dealer with his fingernail. He stared at the pair of kings that had once again brought him and Riku a satisfying amount of raw cash – even though Sora had little to no use for it – and then lifted a much narrowed gaze onto Riku' face. "I had a pair of kings earlier," he said slowly, "and then he had another one in that straight a few turns ago, so how've you got two more sitting there?"

Sora froze, but Riku instantly and very calmly replied, "We must have got the decks mixed up somewhere along the way. Did someone add an extra one?" His words were only slightly softened at the edges, and he spoke with drunken confidence as he exaggeratedly lifted both Roxasbrows and stared around the table.

There was a beat.

But then, without warning, both he and Sora abruptly burst out laughing with more zeal than the situation really demanded – and Riku only had time to stutter out a quick, laughing expletive before he staggered out of his chair and dragged Sora along with him with a hand at his shirt collar. Luxord was the first to lurch after them as they danced back out of the way and sprinted for the door, but the others let out several, mindless roars of annoyance at the two boys that only snagged a pound or two from the kitty as they barrelled out of the way of the thick, ham-like hands that swiped through the air at them.

"Thanks for the game, lads!" Riku called over his shoulder as he pushed Sora out of the door, nearly falling over himself in his efforts to escape and talk at the same time, and he gave a nervous little laugh as he hurried to slam the door shut behind them.

"Go, you idiot!" told Sora laughingly, and together they immediately broke into a slightly unsteady run straight back down the way they came. Sora thought he caught the sound of groaning metal as they door was jerked back on its hinges, and his efforts to look back for some sign of a burly follower only resulting in him craning his head over his shoulder so far that he staggered to the side; nearly knocking Riku over, too, as the older boy ran up from behind him.

His hands scrabbled to find some purchase, but he only managed to grab onto Riku' outstretched arms to hold himself up as they both stumbled into the wall, snorting with laughter.

"You're hopeless, aren't you?" Riku sniggered, trying to drag Sora upright again even as his own laughter threatened to double him over. "I told you not to take any more of those – oh, shit, he's coming again!" he exclaimed, a new laugh bursting out of his lips, and they desperately fought their way up the staircase as Xaldin suddenly rounded into the safety of their corridor, snorting and huffing like a rhino.

Riku' urging became steadily more obscene as they ran, until he was sniggering little more than insults into Sora's ear as his hands pushed the younger boy along by the waist and he constantly stepped on the backs of Sora's shoes while they jogged. Neither of them had managed to stop laughing, even as they heard Xaldin's increasingly incensed cries for them to come back, and as his voice became louder; so did their raucous cackling. Sora actually had tears streaming down his face at one point, making it impossible to see even as his lungs burned and his feet tripped him up with every second step he took.

Out of habit, Riku' guiding hands moved to take him back over to the lower decks of the ship, where he was most accustomed to heading after the day he had experienced, but before he could slip into that section of the boat Sora hissed a quick "Wait" and jerked the older boy along down a different corridor, instead. His hand fumbled at Riku' wrist, finding only a limited hold around his forearm, but it was enough that he managed to wheel Riku in the other direction.

They were not close enough to his suite that they would be able to hide in there just yet, but Sora's fogged mind managed to distinguish between the sight of the other room doors and of the slightly garlanded design that made up the woodworking on the storage cupboards. He had already walked in by accident earlier, and he knew of the locations closest to his room after a particularly thrilling continuation about Kairi's linen woes.

"Here," he whispered furiously, stifling some more silly laughter, and he whipped the closet door open so that he could stuff Riku in ahead of him just as those heavy, stomping footsteps sounded at the end of the hall. He quickly shut them both in, letting a warm darkness envelop the cramped space in which they stood, and he edged back as far as he could – until he bumped into something that gave a small grunt of protest.

"Yeah, that's me," Riku whispered thickly, and Sora slurred out a desperate 'sh' before he reached forward to clap his hand over the older boy's mouth. He felt the barest brush of air against his fingers at the laugh that snorted out of Riku' nose, but he made no other move to fight the position as they both fell as silent as they could.

Outside the door, those heavy footfalls paused once.

Riku' body shuddered with silent laughter, and Sora felt the other boy's fingers lace over his own to press both their hands to smother the giggles that threatened to burst out of his lips as he stood there. His amusement only made Sora's that much worse, though, and the younger boy lost all sense of the decorum that had been so carefully drummed into him as they trembled in the darkness and tried to stand without crashing into the supplies of that closet and creating enough noise to draw Xaldin straight to their location.

There were no new noises from the outside hall for several long seconds, and Sora dared to let his fingers shift off of Riku' mouth for a moment – not completely, but just so that the older boy could breathe – and they both moved with ridiculous care as they gingerly moved their way over to the door.

"Oh, sod it all."

The muttered voice was so close and loud to where they were about to press their ears against the flat of the door that Sora's palm instantly mashed over Riku' lips again as they both fell apart laughing all over again. It took some time for those footsteps to retreat – and even longer for their snickering to die down afterward – but as the seconds passed without the imminent threat of a beating and his lungs finally relaxed in his sides, Sora blinked his watering Roxass and exhaled in a relieved, slightly giggly, sigh.

And then everything went strangely still.

Sora slowly realised that he was standing in a very dark cupboard with a relative stranger, his hands still lightly resting on Riku' face as they stood there, and the air had become so warm and thick from the heat pouring off of his body that he struggled to draw an even breath for several seconds. It was too dark to see his face, but Riku was still and quiet beneath his fingertips; only the barest of breaths alerting Sora to his presence as they hovered there, and the fact that he could now feel that air falling against his palms through the older boy's parted mouth caused a sudden, strange jolt somewhere in Sora's midriff.

It was just barely a spark of something in his lower stomach, elusive and fleeting, but it shot up his spine for a moment and made his breath catch before he quickly pulled his hands away and fumbled for the door instead.

He stumbled out into the empty hallway, his hand still clinging to the doorknob as he went, and fortunately that ungainly exit was enough to break the strange tension that had burst inside that tiny space a few seconds ago. Riku laughed at him, grinning madly, before leaning over wearily to pull him back up onto his feet.

"Where have you taken me, Sora?" Riku demanded drunkenly, and he turned in a full circle in the hallway with both arms swinging loosely at his sides. His frown was comically bemused as his Roxass roamed over their surroundings. "I swear I was in the right side of the ship last time I checked, and now… there are bloody flowers on the doorknobs!" he exclaimed, slightly hysterically. "Sora Anderson, what have you done with me?"

"Shush," Sora begged helplessly, grinning again. "Lower your voice and come with me, before someone sees you and thinks that you're robbing one of the suites."

"Is that an option?" Riku whispered loudly, but he consented to stumble along after Sora as the younger boy made a very halting attempt at walking in a straight line toward his rooms. The journey came in flashes of laughter rippling from his right and of the walls tipping around him – far more than the normal deck was supposed to shift beneath him, he knew – but finally he found himself nearly running straight into a familiar, white-washed door that marked the entrance of his suite.

He paused even as he fumbled to get his key into the locks, speaking in a murmur that was far louder than he intended it to be. "Now, we've got to be quiet, because Roxas will be sleeping… somewhere."

"I don't know who that is," Riku replied quietly, "but alright."

Together, they both put extraordinary effort in tiptoeing their way across the swaying rooms as Sora stuck close to Riku' side and half-shielded him on their way into the master bedroom. His bleary Roxass tried to keep track of Roxas's bedroom door, but he had little success as he suddenly found himself falling face-first into his own bed without much knowledge of how he had opened his door to get there.

Riku flopped down beside him, without much better aim than Sora had, and he let out a low, wheezing sigh as he fell onto his back. "Christ, is this where you sleep?" he whispered with equal parts disgust and approval in his voice as he stared at the rich furnishings of the room in which he lay. He stared at the overly luxurious hangings that were draped around the bed, pooling around the frame above his head with that rich fabric.

There was only the barest hint of light still being cast by the gas light above his bed, fixed to the wall, but it was enough that the room was lit by a soft, golden illumination as they lay there with an extraordinary amount of movement running through the still walls.

Sora spoke into the covers. "Mostly, yes. It doesn't usually have visitors, though."

"Well, you're going to have a boring boat trip, then, aren't you?" Riku replied, and then added a small snigger to himself before sighing again.

"Mostly, yes," Sora repeated, but there was a smile in his voice this time.

Riku giggled again, before falling silent for several long moments. Then, "I have to get back to my room," he said softly, Roxass closing. "I have to find Axel and make sure he's alright. I have to find my bed."

"You can stay," Sora mumbled sleepily. He was already being lulled by the gentle movement of the ship and of his own muzzy consciousness drifting away from him from the alcohol. "I don't mind."

"No, no, I have to go." Riku shook his head firmly, but made no effort toward getting up or even opening his Roxass as he turned onto his side and burrowed his face into half of the pillow beneath his head. "I'll be gone in a minute or two, I'm just…" He paused to yawn before mumbling, "… closing my Roxass for a bit. I'll be out of your hair soon, and I'll go back to my own room." He made a few more rambling comments under his breath, including something along the lines of 'This bed is ridiculous' and 'Don't even know you' but that did not stop him from curling further onto his side so that half of his features were blocked out by the rich, thick covers that overlaid Sora's bed.

Sora might have repeated, "I don't mind" once more, but the words were lost in a trailing of messy syllables as he quickly succumbed to sleep, not even a minute after the older boy drifted off beside him.


	4. Chapter 4

"Sora."

He knew that voice. That voice was made up of warm concern and glasses of water every morning at Eton, when he didn't have enough presence of mind to remember that he had classes to go to.

"Sora, wake up."

"Quiet, Roxas," he moaned in complaint, turning on his side to feel for the warmth that was seeping through his skin. His wandering hands found a stretch of flesh that felt pleasant beneath his tingling fingertips, and he edged closer so that he could press his cheek to what felt suspiciously like a strong chest trapped beneath him. His head felt so muzzy and sore that it barely mattered that a part of him wondered why Roxas's voice was not buzzing through his ear as it should have been in such a position.

"Sora… why is there a boy in your bed?"

He puzzled over that sentence for several moments, eyes closed, and then comprehension clicked far back in the recesses of his mind; fighting past the hangover that clouded his thoughts. "It's just Riku," he mumbled, sighing. His throat felt cottony and dry as he swallowed. "It's alright. He's good."

"Who's Riku?" Roxas whispered, and it was only then that Sora finally peeled his gummy eyelids back to focus on that familiar face that was swimming somewhere above his head. He blinked several times, let his brain catch up to the rest of his body, and it was with a grunt of a sigh that he sat up to see that he was half-curled in the sleeping boy's arms. Riku was still fast asleep, it seemed, and his face was pressed into the pillows while Sora lay sidled up against his firm chest.

Roxas's bewildered gaze flicked down to where Sora's hand had been resting against Riku' stomach, dangerously close to touching the inch of skin that had been revealed by his skewed shirt, and the younger boy swiftly drew his fingers back.

For just a moment, he felt the strangest urge to simply shoo his friend out of the room in fear of waking the older boy up where he lay beside him. Riku' eyelashes were fluttering slightly with dreams, his mouth was just a little bit parted, and there was a side to Sora's fuzzy mind that just wanted to leave the other boy there. Not least, he feared what the light of day was going to do to their memories of the previous night. Already, the morning felt too harsh and ordinary, as if the strange connection he'd felt to the other boy would be broken the second that Riku woke up to find that he was in Sora's suite; trapped in the conventional hell that was his life rather than adventuring through the decks together. Irrationally, he felt that it would be too awkward for Riku to find himself there.

And Sora was afraid, more than he should have been, that the other boy would simply leave.

"Sora?" Roxas prodded quietly, still clearly confused about what he was seeing.

Sora nodded once and, as carefully as he could, he tried to edge himself off of the mattress without disturbing the other boy overly much. Riku inhaled once, a soft sound, but he only turned further into the covers as Sora took the moment to ease himself onto the deck as quickly as he could; glancing back at Riku several times as he did so.

The floors were cold beneath his bare feet, and he instantly staggered into Roxas's arms as soon as he stood up, momentarily forgetting that he was in fact on a ship that was still pitching and moving beneath them without pause. His stomach rolled sickly, as much with the hangover he felt as with seasickness, and he was more than happy to allow Roxas to escort him out into the sitting room beyond with two hands beneath his elbows.

He groaned quietly as he was lowered into one of the loveseats, curling into the cushions behind him, and he found that his initial waking thought had not been that far off – Roxas already had a fresh glass of water sitting on the coffee table, and he quickly leaned over to fetch it for the younger boy as soon as he was seated.

"What happened to you last night?" he asked incredulously, glancing back at Sora as he carefully closed the sliding doors to the bedroom beyond. "I went to find you after dinner, but you weren't there. Your parents said that you went back to your room afterward, but obviously I would have known that, being in here with you, so where did you go?" He was babbling in the way that he did when he hadn't spoken to anyone for several hours, as he used to when he always used to wake up earlier than the rest of the boys in the dormitory. "And who is that in there?" he tacked on, almost like an afterthought. "I've been your roommate for years now, and that's… new."

Sora would have laughed at the tone of his voice, had it not been for the scratchiness of his tongue. Instead, he nodded absently while he gulped down a few mouthfuls of blessedly cool water. "Yes," he said roughly, emerging from the glass. "Fairly new."

Roxas's patience was clearly running thin.

"Alright," Sora sighed, shifting back on the seat so that he could tip his head toward the other boy. "I met him yesterday – he was actually on the docks and he—" He let out a small laugh. "—he actually started calling Kairi out on her behaviour while we were there, and then when I saw him in the dining hall yesterday I knew that—" He broke off just in time, before he could spill out an explanation as to how he knew that Riku was a stowaway, and so owed him a night of apology to make up for his rudeness. While he loved and trusted Roxas above all others, Riku had not even met the boy and so no matter how highly he regarded Roxas; he did not feel comfortable handing over someone else's secrets without checking with the older boy first.

"Knew what?" Roxas asked, looking more confused than before. He sat himself down on the footstool opposite Sora so that he could frown directly into the younger boy's face as he spoke. "And what was he doing in the dining hall?"

Sora chose to answer the second query only. "He was working. Waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"Tables, Roxas. He was waiting tables."

At that, his wonderful friend's dark eyebrows climbed his forehead in surprise and he blinked several times in rapid succession. There was an odd mixture of acceptance and bewilderment playing across his features as he slowly said, "You brought a waiter back to your bed for the night after he was in the same room as your family? That's… bold."

Sora couldn't quite keep the blush from his face as he shook his head, waving his free hand at the same time to double the denials. "No, not like that," he muttered, feeling his cheeks redden. "I was playing cards, with these men, and then there was a lot of alcohol… and then we were running because Riku was cheating, and then there was this large Robert that came looking for us and I wanted to hide him for a while. But he's fine," he added, upon seeing Roxas's sceptical expression. "Really, he's more than fine."

A strange look flickered over Roxas's face then, momentarily pushing aside the concern that had clouded over his features. "More than fine?" he repeated, somewhat mischievously. "Is that why you were cuddling a few minutes ago?"

It was a testament to their friendship that he was able to make teasing comments about the situation rather than making it too uncomfortable. He could have been disgusted or appalled by the behaviour that he had witnessed – though Sora quickly reassured himself that there was absolutely, positively no way that there could be anything untoward about that scene – and yet he was fighting a smirk as he sat there and acknowledged the fact that he had just caught his best friend in bed with another man. More than that, an odd kind of delight was sweeping through his expression – although Sora was less than ecstatic about that fact.

"A lot of alcohol," the younger boy repeated pointedly. "We were just drunk, and… tired. Very tired."

Roxas flicked a glance over his shoulder, where they could not quite see the door that led through to the bedroom. His voice lowered. "You do realise that your father would have an aneurism if he knew that you had a waiter in your rooms – male or female. If he even knew that you had brought him up into the suite…"

"I know," Sora agreed emphatically, huffing out a small sigh. "But he won't know, so it's not any issue right now. We'll just have to make sure that he doesn't come out to my suite for a while, so he doesn't end up coming here at the wrong time. Do we still have that afternoon tea tomorrow?"

"That's today, actually," Roxas told him absently, but he held up two hands to forestall any further responses as his brow creased. "But I don't see how that's an issue unless you're planning to keep him in that bed for the next few days."

Sora brushed that aside immediately. "No, of course not," he assured his friend, watching Roxas relax slightly at those words. He chose to mention that the sentence was only true in the sense that he was not planning to force Riku to stay sleeping in his bed for the next few days; he would have been lying, however, if he had claimed that he was not at least planning an attempt to at least befriend the older boy. Despite the after-effects of the drunkenness, he hadn't felt so free and happy as he had last night in the midst of their disastrous evening.

"In any case," Roxas said, inhaling deeply and slapping his thighs, "you're supposed to be meeting Kairi at some point today, as per instruction, and since you've almost slept until noon you may want to try and wash the creases out of your face before you do." He ruffled the younger boy's hair in an affectionate, brotherly gesture as he stood to move over to the other table that held a plateful of fruits and breakfast. Sora groaned his protest, but dragged himself off of the seat nonetheless to polish off his water.

"Would you like me to wake your new friend up before I go?" Roxas offered, as Sora shuffled his way over to the room service cart to replace his glass. The younger boy's eyes widened in protest, and he nearly staggered over the pitching floors again as he whirled just in time to see Roxas sliding open the bedroom doors.

Sora hurried forward to stop him, wincing, but as he peeked over Roxas's shoulder he saw that there was only a rumpled bed where there had been a sleeping boy beforehand. Roxas glanced back and forth over the covers once or twice, and then turned back with a shrug for the fuzzy, spiky-haired boy that stood behind him, blinking absently.

"Perhaps he left while we were talking," Roxas suggested, canting his head, and then left the doors open before he retreated back and headed toward his own room. "If you like, I'll come with you so you'll have some company with Kairi, at the very least. You'll have to get changed, though."

Sora didn't bother to hide his sullen frown as he jerked a shoulder in a shrug and nodded. "Alright," he mumbled, and then proceeded to drag his body back over to his stunningly vacated bedroom. He hadn't even heard Riku leave, and he wondered how the boy could still be so spry when he had consumed at least the same amount of vodka that Sora had last night. He could barely make his muddled mind work quickly enough for him to fumble the doors closed behind him as he fought the urge to hide in his rooms for the rest of the day.

"I told you I should have left last night."

Sora nearly leapt out of his skin at the voice that sounded to his right, and he very quickly sat himself down on the bed so that he wouldn't suffer through the embarrassment of falling over completely. Riku was still there, leaning wearily on the wall beside the door with his hand resting back against the plaster. His arm was resting on the wardrobe beside him, bracing his body completely against the small movements of the ship, and Sora had to smother the small wisp of happiness that leapt in his stomach at the sight of the strange boy – even though he looked somewhat haggard at that very moment.

"No," Sora told him without hesitation, fighting a yawn. "Roxas understands what happened, it's alright. You didn't have to hide." His voice lilted with amusement, and his mind seemed to clear slightly as a grin stretched his lips. "But I'm glad you're still here."

Riku blinked quickly, looking as though he wasn't entirely sure what to make of that rather impulsive admission, but then he smiled in return. "Your bed is way more comfortable than mine," he laughed, mouth stretching shamelessly in a wide yawn, "I can admit to that much. It might actually be bigger than my entire room down there, so that's nice, too." Then, the older boy winced just a little bit. "Oh, Axel, I'm so sorry," he murmured under his breath, scrubbing both hands over his face in a weary gesture. "I hope he's alright."

"Your friend?"

Riku nodded once. "Yes. He's not very comfortable there, and I was going to go find him." He paused for a brief moment, chewing on the end of his thumb absently for several seconds, and his blue eyes went afar. Sora waited quietly, watching in fascination at the concern that played over his features, but then he abruptly snapped out of the daze with a tiny flinch that had him standing up from the wall. "So I should probably… get back. You know, before they start thinking that I've fallen overboard, or something."

"That's understandable," Sora said mildly, and he kept his smile in place as he nodded his approval.

"Besides, you've got that… tea thing later," Riku added, gesturing vaguely back toward the sitting room. There was a strangely defensive tone in his voice then; it was not hostile, but it sounded as though he were trying to find reasons that he should be leaving. "I don't want to pull you away, or anything, either, and I don't whether or not you'll even be allowed where I'm going to be, so…"

Sora just waved one long-fingered hand, brushing aside the other boy's concerns. "No, I completely understand," he repeated, even summoning a smile to help ease the concern out of the older boy's features. "I don't expect you to stay in here the entire boat trip, after all, and I'm sure you've things you'd rather be doing than waiting for me to finish that… tea."

He had never realised just how ridiculous the practice of an afternoon tea sitting was until that very moment, with those eyebrows tilting up just a little bit, and Sora actually felt his cheeks redden with a blush as he sat and shamefacedly considered the absurd façade that was his daily routine. He wondered how he had never thought of it before; how he had never seen how terribly dull his life was until right then.

"We'll most likely run into each other somewhere anyway," Sora added, shaking himself out of his sudden reverie in an attempt to lighten the mood again. His words were too cheerful, hiding the improbability of any meeting between someone who slept in silk and a boy who, in any normal circumstance, would have been refused at the first-class entrance to the dining hall. On the off chance that Sora was released from his obligation, it was doubtful that he would be able to discretely slip over to the other side of the deck without someone calling him on his behaviour; putting him in the awkward position of trying to explain why he wanted to sneak over to meet with a stowaway – something he wasn't entirely sure about, himself.

"Right," Riku said again, shortly. He flashed a bright grin as he slipped out of those sleek doors, leaving Sora with the strangest feeling that they had somehow left an unspoken question hanging in the air with that sudden departure. It was as if the conversation had not yet ended, and he found himself slumping back into an undignified slouch as he leant back on his hands and sighed.

He shot back upright as the doors opened again.

"Or," Riku mused, stepping back into the room without preamble, "you could just come with me, and leave the tea and biscuits for later. That is, if you actually—"

Sora was already on his feet as he hastily replied, "Yes."

"—want to," Riku finished belatedly, and then paused. A small smile was tugging at the corner of his mouth, just barely out of sight, but when Sora suddenly beamed at him that smirk became a full-blown grin that had his eyes crinkling slightly at the corners. He smothered it quickly, but he couldn't quite hide the pleased look that was dancing in his eyes as he nodded. "Well, alright then. Although, I do have to go back to the rooms to get out of this first," he said, plucking at his rumpled waiter's uniform, "which means you will have to risk your pretty face in the lower sections of the staff quarters again."

A muffled snort made its way out of Sora's lips, and his voice was amused as he muttered, "I'll managed."

Riku shared his grin in that moment, leaving a small, happy flush of warmth singing though Sora's veins to chase away his weariness, and he waited for Sora to join his side once more before they moved out into the room beyond – where Roxas was waiting for them, looking vaguely puzzled by the situation in which he found himself.

Sora and Riku both stopped short, as if they'd somehow run into Sora's parents themselves; waiting to reprimand their son with dark scowls and sparking gazes, rather than the slightly bewildered boy that stood in front of them now. Roxas's lips were pouted just a little in a confused frown as he looked from one to the other, but Riku quickly skipped forward before he could get a word out.

"Hullo," he said cheerfully, extending a hand with a large, irresistibly friendly grin. "I'm Riku, and it is lovely to meet you, Roxas. Sora's already spewed out everything there is to know about you," he added, reaching back to wrap his fingers around the younger boy's shoulder in an affectionate squeeze, "and since I spent a good hour hearing about what a great person you are; I really do mean that."

"Did he really?" Roxas asked blankly, just as Sora muttered, "I did?"

Riku' smile didn't falter. "You did," he confirmed, addressing Sora, and then shared a surprisingly conspiratorial smile with Roxas as he added, "He seemed to think that you'd be quite upset with the both of us if we came stumbling into your bedroom late last night with some celebratory drinks, so you've got him to thank for that one."

Sora wasn't sure what was more surprising; the easy-going, familiar manner with which his newest friend was addressing his oldest, or how quickly Roxas was disarmed by it. Within the space of just a few seconds of bright smiles and wide eyes, his concerned expression relaxed into a loose returning smile as he laughed once. "He was right about that," Roxas returned in a rueful tone, but there was actual warmth in his eyes as he glanced at his friend once more, shaking his head.

Sora's mouth nearly fell open. His total surprise almost let him trip into a teasing comment about how Roxas had been so easily derailed from his usual straight-laced professionalism – until he realised that he had only met the older boy a day ago, himself, and since that moment he had willingly enabled a drinking competition, a cheating gambler and had slept with a boy; all without uttering a single complaint. Riku' hand was still resting on his shoulder as they spoke, and somehow Sora had trouble with pointing the judgemental finger at Roxas for being charmed when he was practically pressed against the hip of the older boy, himself.

Instead of bothering him overly much, as it should have, that thought only brought a tiny smile to his lips.

"I'd love to stay," Riku said suddenly, breaking the bubbly atmosphere of the room with a deep breath and a gesture toward the door, "but actually we've got to get going for a little while." He slipped into the plural faultlessly, so that Sora barely noticed that he was included in the departure until he felt himself being tugged away gently. "You're welcome to come with us, of course…?"

Roxas paused, and Sora immediately knew why. On the one hand, they had been best friends since absurdly early ages, so it seemed unnatural for either of them to see the other leaving with someone else – Sora knew this from personal experience, having felt the strange mixture of jealousy and embarrassment for feeling resentful toward anyone that momentarily monopolised his closest friend. However, it was also clear that Roxas could see how much Sora was itching to leave; it was nothing personal, but he was eager to escape to spend whatever time he could with this new, rather exciting person that was going to take him out of their mind-numbing social scene.

So, while he may have been slightly put-out by the enthusiasm on his best friend's face, Roxas was too tactful to try and join them as he waved the other boys along. "No, you go ahead," he smiled. "I'll see you later this afternoon, Sora, and it was a pleasure to meet you."

Riku grinned in response, and Sora's shoulder tingled strangely as the older boy released it to reach for the door. Just as he moved to follow on, Roxas's hand gently reached out to catch at Sora's arm to bring him to a stop as he murmured, "Remind me again how you met him?"

Sora just shrugged. "He broke the law and I tried to blackmail him into slavery?" he replied archly, not quite a question, and a broad grin lifted his features as he hastened out through the door before Roxas could move past the initial stages of the blank shock just beginning to form on his face. He only snagged a light coat where it hung near the doorway and shut the door on the stuttering questions that followed after him.

Sora was surprised to find that the narrow, warm hallways of the staff quarters didn't bother him as much the second time as they had the first. His stomach was still slightly uneasy within him, but on the whole his hangover all but vanished in the brief blast of sea air he received upon exiting his suite and it made it far easier to brave those corridors as he trotted along with Riku until they came to the right room again.

Sora might have felt too rude simply barging in, but Riku only opened the door up wide the second he arrived; bursting into the tiny space without a single warning for the people beyond, and so he simply hovered on the threshold as Riku moved toward the left side of the narrow room. To Sora, it only looked like a lump of pillows and a tuft of hair that protruded from the covers, but Riku' expression gentled with a profound amount of fondness as he looked upon that bed.

"Axel," he whispered, nearly singing the words, and he reached up to pull aside a layer of cloth to reveal the boy beneath.

He received only a quiet moan in response.

"You alright, mate?" Riku murmured as he approached the edge of the bunk, peering into the bleary face of the red hair boy that lay there. Sora recognised him as the other lad that had been with Riku upon their arrival, thus undoubtedly making him another stowaway, and his mind helpfully supplied the name 'Axel' to the boy that groaned under his breath and swatted absently at Riku' face. His fingers slid lazily down Riku' features, dragging at his eyebrow and smashing his palm against the older boy's cheek in an effort to turn him away.

"'M fine," he mumbled, and Sora noted that his words were lilted in a light – albeit very tired – Irish accent. "You're late. You were supposed to be back last night."

"I know."

Axel inhaled deeply, emerging from the bedding with a tiny bit more liveliness than before as he asked, "So, who've you been sleeping with, then? I thought we were supposed to be keeping a low profile here, not fuck everything that comes across your path."

A choked laugh escaped Sora's lips, before he could smother it completely, and it was only then that Axel's vivid blue eyes slipped open so that he could turn a hazy look onto the boy that was standing in the threshold. He quite clearly surveyed Sora once, making the younger boy straighten slightly beneath the scrutiny, and Axel then lifted up onto one elbow so that he could look between them both. "Have you got something you want to tell me, Ri?" he asked pointedly, yet mildly, and rubbed sleepily at his eyes as he dragged himself into a seated position. "I always thought you were a handsy drunk, but…"

Riku' eyes slid to their corners as he flicked a very quick glance in Sora's direction, but his grin was calm as he flashed across his face. "Only with you, Axel," he said coyly, and lifted himself up on the edge of the bed so that he could peck a swift kiss somewhere on the other boy's eyelid, making him cringe. "And this is Sora; he was hiding me out after I pissed those blokes off last night."

"The poker blokes? I thought you were going to play fair this time."

"I never said that," Riku replied innocently, tongue-in-cheek, and without warning; he suddenly turned and stripped the shirt from his back to toss it on the bed. The material slid straight off of his torso, revealing a smooth expanse of skin that was somehow just as tanned as the rest of him, and he spared not a glance for the extremely startled boy that stood behind him, wondering if he was supposed to leave. Already, Riku' fingers were tugging at the pins that kept his overly large trousers in place, too, and Sora felt his cheeks inexplicably begin to heat up as he caught sight of the different muscles arching in the older boy's shoulders and back.

Sora's vision sparkled just a little bit, and it was only then that he realised that he'd begun holding his breath as he stood there, shifting his gaze to a far more innocuous spot on the wall to his right.

He wasn't entirely sure what has happening to him. He had never had a problem with nakedness before, especially not with other males, because having his childhood hosted in an all-boys college had done plenty in making comfortable with other people. He had seen plenty of strangers in far more compromising positions throughout his adolescence without a single reaction. While the rest of his upbringing might have explained the ridiculous propriety that was causing him to avert his eyes, there was no reason that he could find for why his hands were fidgeting at his sides or the strange flashes of heat that prickled over his skin and made his ears go hot. He could feel his flush creeping down his neck as the conversation continued, undisturbed.

"If you lost more of my money," Axel warned, "then you're gonna be working the kitchen shift on your own for the rest of this boat trip while I hang out on top and relax."

The Irish boy was shirtless, yet Sora hadn't felt any embarrassment as being introduced to him in that state.

"I didn't lose anything! I didn't even put anything down, if you can believe that – it was all Sora that made that possible, too, so be nice to him." He flicked what he could reach of Axel's knee and shot Sora a small smile over his shoulder before he bent down to rummage through the trunk at the foot of the bed. His trousers were riding very low on his slim frame, even with the hand that he kept clutching at the waistband so they wouldn't fall off completely, and Sora could just see the hint of a small scar poking up from his left side, above the hipbone. It was how he knew that his gaze had wandered again, before he resolutely yanked his eyes safely away.

Sora did not notice the quiet boy that was sitting in the bunk beside him as he stood there, determinedly staring at the grubby plaster, and so he was not aware of the amusement playing across Leon's features as he watched the mottled colour splashing across Sora's cheeks. He had consented to simply enjoy the other boy's reaction for several seconds, fascinated by the diverse colours forming on his skin, but he finally took mercy on him; distracting him from the rapidly undressing boy in the form of a extended hand.

"Hi, I'm Leon," he introduced himself with a friendly smile, and Sora felt a moment's relief as he leant forward to shake the other boy's hand. He tried to cover the fact that he had not even realised that someone was sitting there, half-hidden beneath the bunk above his head.

"Please to meet you," Sora murmured in an undertone, ignoring the rustling of material that sounded somewhere to his left. He stared too avidly at Leon's handsome face as he asked, "Did you come on board with them, too?"

Something like a snort escaped his lips, and his dark eyebrows flew up his forehead. "With these two?" he asked incredulously, laughing. "There's no way I wouldn't have made it through if I hadn't had the proper passes and tokens; I barely made it on even with my legitimate statement. No, I definitely don't belong with these two idiots."

That made Riku and Axel pause in their conversation briefly, and while Sora might have expected some response to the latter description of the boys, Riku only lifted one eyebrow to cast a glance at his red haired friend. "You told him that we snuck on board?" he asked.

Axel shrugged. "Yeah, basically. You told Sora, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't actually," Riku replied haughtily, and Axel scoffed out a laugh.

"Well, you have now, haven't you? Well done, Ri."

The older boy only rolled his eyes, before his head momentarily disappeared into the undershirt he pulled over his shoulders. He spoke into the material a moment before his tousled head reappeared. "Actually, I didn't. See out of the two of us, I have some sense of control and secrecy and I didn't start spilling records of our crimes out onto every lad that… alright, granted, he's living with us so he probably would've found out eventually, but that's not the point. Besides, Sora had already seen us so that doesn't count at all."

A frown briefly marred Axel's smooth, unlined forehead as he glanced over at the spiky-haired boy, but then his expression lit with comprehension as he finally caught onto why Sora had seemed strangely familiar upon his entrance. "Oh, right!" he exclaimed, cheerfully. "You were behind us in the line, weren't you? Christ, you were with that—" He was cut short by a swift, unsubtle punch from his friend, and then hastily blurted out, "That lovely girl."

Sora spoke before he meant to. "You mean that rude, irritating, self-obsessed debutante? You can say it."

All three of the boys there exchanged a surprised look at those words, looking somewhat impressed to hear them falling from the posh boy's lips, and Axel's face stretched into a wide grin that twisted cheekily and made his eyes sparkle. "That's not even close to what I was going to say, man," he drawled, "but yeah, that sounds about right."

Leon glanced between them. "Is she really that bad?"

"Yes," Sora answered immediately, before either of the others could even open their mouths. "She's really that bad." His emphatic tone brought a look of sympathy to Leon's features, and he received a small pat on the shoulder for the distaste that momentarily contorted his lips around the words.

The snapping of elastic brought Sora's attention back to the blue-eyed boy in the centre of the room, and he glanced up to find that Riku was smiling at him again as he adjusted the braces that sat stop his blessedly clothed shoulders.

"Are you ready?" he asked Sora brightly, and the younger boy nodded enthusiastically.

Axel, however, was less pleased; his eyebrows drew into a suspicious scowl as he looked between them both. "Where are you going? If you're planning on ditching me below deck for the second day in a row – your best mate – then you've got another—"

"We're skipping breakfast and exploring the rest of the boat," Riku explained quickly, lips upturned. "All the lower levels and that; the stuff we didn't get to see yesterday."

Axel's nose wrinkled. "Oh."

Whether it was by design or a simple acknowledgement of the uncomfortable look that crossed his friend's face, Sora noticed that Riku did not extend to Axel the same invitation that he had with Roxas earlier. "I'll come and enjoy the top deck with you later, though, alright?" he added, patting his friend's leg as he passed. "Make sure you don't stay down here too long, and I told the chefs to set you aside a plate in the kitchen before they set the rest out to get wolfed down. It'll be with a girl called Josie when you go, and make sure you give her the best Irish accent you've got mate." The last was said with a cheeky grin and a twitching of his eyebrows, and a different look graced Axel's features as his gaze became considering.

"Come on," Riku whispered to Sora, pausing only to give a brief wave to Leon on his way out of the room, and they both hurried out before they could be called back again.


	5. Chapter 5

It soon became abundantly clear that there were very little interesting places to explore upon the Titanic, beyond the overheated, steaming engine chamber and the top deck itself. Even those attractions lost some of the novelty once the crowded heat washed over their faces and the crowds on the deck pushed the appeal away. In the end, Riku actually ended up being true to his word to Axel about exploring the lower levels, as he finally discovered a small passage that led from the staff storage into the larger storage chambers of the boat; the ones that contained the rest of the luggage from the passengers above, and oddly enough there was far more space there than the rest.

More than that, there was finally some privacy from the rest of the vessel as they dropped into that domed space and enjoyed the musty, dusty escape that was offered to them in the form of shipping crates and bundles of netted luggage that creaked absently with the movement of the ship.

There were even a few motor cars parked intermittently amidst the rest of the luggage, and both boys were drawn over to the automobiles that they admired as they wandered aimlessly through the rows of possessions.

"I wonder why they even brought this on board," Riku mused as he wandered around the vehicle, absently letting his fingers walk along the shiny metal before he trailed them across the slightly dusty window, just barely dragging his fingertips over the glass surface. Sora matched his pace on the other side, and for just a moment he had a glimpse of Riku' palm and a blurred view of the older boy's face as he glanced through both panes to see him walking on the opposite side of the car.

Then they passed around to the hood of the car, pulling back to back side by side once more, and Riku smiled at him as they continued their exploration of the storage chamber.

"So why did you come on here?" Sora asked impulsively, glancing curiously at the other boy from the corner of his eye as he pretended to examine some of the other shelved boxes that had been stacked up around them. There were a few rigged nets of luggage bouncing gently above them, too, so he had somewhere to direct his gaze when Riku turned to him. "If you knew there was a chance that you were going to be arrested, why did you take the risk and stow away on such a well-known ship? Couldn't you have found some other liner that was heading this way?"

"Well, that's two different questions, isn't it?" Riku returned playfully. "I came on a boat to America for all the usual reasons – adventure, fun, travel and, you know, a job – but I came on the Titanic because it was well-known. Who the hell would want to be a stowaway on a tiny little rowboat named 'Marigold'? For one thing, I'm pretty sure they'd notice Axel and me if we tried to sneak on. There's not many places to hide there – and none that are particularly pleasant."

"Fair point," Sora laughed, grinning.

"Besides, why wouldn't I want to spend my journey in luxury and leisure?" Riku turned around in a circle, spreading his arms wide to gesture to the fairly stuffy space in which they stood, and his eyes were twinkling as he came in a full revolution to look at Sora once more.

Again, Sora couldn't help but smile at the open look of mirth that was stretched across the other boy's features; there was simply no other response that he could have to him. His cheeks were actually beginning to ache.

"You're probably going to be late for your tea thing later, you know," Riku commented, affecting a concerned expression as he turned his head and tutted disapprovingly under his breath. "And here I am keeping you from such an important occasion… please forgive me for that one, sir, I don't know how I thought I could dare to take you away."

Sora only rolled his eyes, fighting the smile that was making his lips twitch. "I can't bring myself to care," he admitted, and despite the heavy boredom in his voice he felt oddly light as he spoke; as if in openly acknowledging the fact that he didn't want to go had relieved from the obligation to do so. He suddenly wondered how many of his duties only remained in his life because he made himself care about them, and if he had in fact been responsible for the pressure that made him sit through every lecture and session that made him want to claw his own face off.

"Actually," he continued in a musing tone, "I don't think I'd mind that much if I just skipped it completely."

Riku actually looked slightly proud at that statement, as well as pleased. "Well, I'm not going to complain," he said easily, "since you're one of the only people here willing to keep me entertained during the day. I can't honestly imagine that this place would be that thrilling without anyone else, either." His eyes roamed around the open chamber as he spoke, widening pointedly. However, his eyes caught on the rows of storage shelves at the far end of the room, and he casually slipped a hand under Sora's elbow briefly to turn them in that direction as they continued walking. "But really, how hard could it be to sit around eating biscuits for an hour or two?"

"It's not that," Sora chuckled, and one side of his mouth tugged up into a crooked grin. "It's the company and the conversation and everything else that has nothing to do with tea at all. If the fact that I'm here, with you, and that I can know you less than two days and still like you more than most of the people that I interact with isn't enough to convince you that it's a horrible experience, then I don't know what will."

Riku' eyes darted to Sora's face once, flickering over his features with an unseen, vivid curiosity for a few brief moments before he quickly drew them away again, shrugging. "To be fair, I did get you drunk on the first night, so I doubt it's a very even scale." Even as he spoke, Sora thought that he could imagine a pleased little flush spreading across the edges of his cheekbones as he turned his gaze forward. "Although this does beg the question… why did you get on a liner with them if they were going to make you miserable the entire time?"

"I didn't get much of a say in the matter," Sora replied, bluntly.

"You could've hid," Riku pointed out, "or stayed with some relatives, or something."

Sora was already shaking his head before the older boy had even finished speaking. "No, I mean I was a part of the reason behind this trip," he clarified, sighing just a bit. "Ostensibly, my father wants to go overseas so that he can explore a new business venture as he always does, but he brought Kairi along in the hope that we would be able to get to know each other better on the way. I think he's under the impression that more time together is going to make me like her more."

"Yeah, that'll work," Riku snorted, and Sora was very much inclined to agree with him.

"I suppose I could have tried staying with Aerith – my sister," he explained, at Riku' curious look. "She's married now and still back in her own home, though, so she doesn't come down to visit that much. She gave me this before she moved out completely," he added, and tugged the loosened collar of his shirt aside so that he could draw out the thin chain of the locket that still hung around his neck. His sister had been kind enough to give him something remotely masculine, and it was only a small, fairly undecorated silver circle that hung down to just below his sternum. The weight of it was comforting, most days.

He had intended to undo the clasp so that he could readily give it over for Riku' inspection, but the older boy simply stepped forward and – after wordlessly gesturing to ask for Sora's permission, first – slipped his fingertips beneath that circular locket so that it balanced in the center of his palm. His movements were very careful as he flicked it open and peered inside, still standing so that his face was nearly directly in front of Sora's.

"It says 'Visit me soon'," Sora told him aloud, simply for the sake of something to say. He knew that Riku was undoubtedly already reading the tiny, neat inscription that was printed opposite a photograph of him and Aerith in that tiny window, but he felt inexplicably nervous standing so close to him; it made his skin feel strange as it stretched over him, and he spoke only so that he could distract himself. "She had it made a little while after she got engaged, apparently, so that she'd have a parting gift to give to me while she left me alone with my parents."

Riku nodded absently, but his brow furrowed slightly as he continued staring at the locket. A moment of silence passed before he lifted his gaze with an expression of polite bewilderment playing over his features. "What about the rest of the message?" he asked.

Instantly, Sora leant forward so that he could look at the necklace still hanging loosely in Riku' palm. "What are you talking about?"

"Haven't you read the fine print here?" A strange feeling tugged at Sora's chest as he shook his head. "Oh," Riku exclaimed, eyebrows lifting with surprise, and he quickly angled his palm, ostensibly to offer the locket up for Sora's inspection as he continued speaking. "It says, 'Please help me, I've been trapped by the tiny golden noose that's been forced over my finger, and I can't remember how to get it off.' Well, personally, I'm just impressed she managed to get that onto that tiny little window. Look at that craftsmanship."

"What are you talking about?" Sora repeated confusedly, and a genuine frown tugged at his brow as he turned to stare blankly into Riku' face.

The older boy seemed just as stunned by his lack of comprehension as Sora did by the incomprehensible words being spoken to him. "Sora, this is the most desperate, jewelery-shaped plea for help that I've ever seen," he said, slowly and clearly, and he stared right into Sora's eyes in that way of his as he did. "If she had this made early, then she was already asking you to come and see her before she was even married! She wanted you to visit before she was even gone and while I may be way off about this - you could just be really close to your sister – it doesn't sound like she was all that happy with her choice of man once it actually came around to marrying him."

His wince was sympathetic as he lifted one shoulder in an apologetic shrug. Sora wasn't entirely sure whether he was apologizing for the words that he spoke or for the truth that he now brought to Sora's attention, but neither was very optimistic for him.

Still, Sora had to agree with him on one point. "Well, no, I doubt he was her 'choice of man' at all, all things considered."

Now it was Riku' turn to be confused. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean it was mostly arranged by my father," Sora explained. "After she turned eighteen, they started taking her out so that they could see who was interested and who might be advantageous for the business. She actually got married to the son of another businessman that wanted to work with my father. They—"

"Wait, what?" Riku broke in, and both of his hands flew up as if he were stopping traffic rather than a calmly-spoken explanation about the marriage practises of the upper class. "Your father shipped your sister off to get married to some bloke just because it'd help his business?"

Sora's frown deepened. "We didn't sell her, or anything, and she did agree to it beforehand, but… yes."

"Why?"

It was such a seemingly simple question, but as Sora opened his mouth to respond – he fell silent, instead. He knew that it was a fairly common habit, leftover from the past where it was universal to bargain women and partnerships back and forth for the most productive outcome, but as he stood there and watched the blank disapproval that was quickly swarming Riku' face he was stumped. He could find no reasonable explanation for why his parents had deemed it acceptable to marry Aerith off the second that she was eligible and ready.

Then, a new look bloomed beneath Riku' shock. "Is that what he's trying to do with you and Kairi?" he demanded incredulously, eyebrows flying up even higher than before. He looked truly startled by the concept, as if it had never occurred to him before that moment, and his eyes were very wide. "Is that what you meant by him trying to get the two of you to like each other – that he's trying to gear you up to marry that harpy?"

Sora tried not to snort at the phrasing and failed spectacularly; he had to smother his silly laughter as he replied with a succinct, "Yes."

"Why?" Riku reiterated, in much the same tone as before. "Why did you even get on the bloody boat? I think I would have run in the opposite direction if I knew that's what they were planning by getting me on here, Jesus Christ. You don't actually want to marry her, do you?" he added, as if double-checking, and he sent the younger boy and oddly scrutinizing look at he did so.

"No," Sora answered, both quickly and emphatically. "Definitely not. But I don't think it's ever occurred to him to ever ask for my opinion on the matter, to be honest."

Riku scoffed scornfully. "Sod him," he said baldly. "He doesn't get to decide."

"Actually—"

"Nope," Riku interrupted, and a grin was beginning to lift the corners of his mouth as he cut the younger boy off, shaking his head. The appalled look in his eye warred with his new amusement. "There's nothing you can say that's going to make me agree with the idea of you two getting married, I'm sorry. That girl deserves to sniff around prospective funding until she's peeling the make-up from her face, too old to actually marry any of them." He managed to hold onto his fervent tone until that moment, and then he let out a startled little laugh at himself, lifting a hand to cover his mouth. It was twisted in a wry smile when he let his fingers drop to ask, "Too far?"

Sora's cheeks were definitely aching with his smile as he shook his head once. "Not even close."

Riku shared the younger boy's smile for several seconds as they stood there, feeling the atmosphere lighten from where it had been warping around Riku' disapproval, and then he snorted once more. "God, your family is weird, Sora," he muttered, and he turned to continue walking through the rows of shelving. "I think you should just bolt the second that the boat docks; take off before they can try to get you to any alters, and then you can sneak back home while they're away."

"I think they'd have me barred from the manor," Sora admitted ruefully. He paused for just a beat. "I know that because I've already considered it."

"What about staying with your sister?"

Sora had considered that, too. "She'd have to write to my parents if I did. Even if she didn't want to, they'd contact her first and she'd get into trouble because of me. I wouldn't want that. Honestly, I've thought of everything by now, Lou," he said pointedly, and then froze a bit as he realized that he'd unintentionally shortened the other boy's name into what could have been an unwanted nickname. However, Riku made no reaction other than another open, attentive look to his face, and so he continued unfettered by concern for that slip. "And if in the unlikely event that I did manage to make a runner, that would probably leave Roxas on a holiday trip with my family – and he doesn't like them much more than I do, at this point."

Riku was quiet for several moments, thinking over those words, and Sora simply enjoyed imagining the cogs that were turning around in the older boy's brain as he considered the scenario that was laid out in front of him. Then, he said something that Sora could honestly say he had not previously thought of; as he turned to the side, looked into Sora's face and quite simply suggested, "Why don't you come with me, then?"

Sora actually stopped walking in the middle of that narrow row. "What?"

The older boy's voice was faintly amused as he repeated, "Why don't you come with me? When the boat docks, I mean. If you really don't want to go with your family while you're over there, and you can't go back home, come with me and Axel for a bit to get away. As soon as we tie up, we can slip you out the other entrance before anyone knows you're gone from the ship – you and Roxas both. I'm not saying you have to stay there indefinitely," he added carefully, "but just so that you get a bit of real holidaying in before that hell comes back to find you… the option's there."

"But you hardly know me," Sora blurted out, stunned. "I could be completely insane for all you know."

"Then you'd fit right in, I suppose," Riku shrugged, unconcerned, and then spent only a moment lingering in place so that his eyes could flit over Sora's face and his reaction. "You don't have to think about it now," he added in a playful tone, smiling lopsidedly, "but just keep it in mind when we actually start pulling up to the wharf on the other side, alright?" He waited for Sora's numb nod of acknowledgment before his smile widened and he gave a curt nod, too. Then, he simply turned on one heel so that he directly faced the shelf beside him – and, with a slight shrug beforehand, he casually reached up so that his hands gripped the ledge and he leapt up to peer over the edge toward the luggage beyond.

Almost instantly, he dropped back down with a grunt of annoyance. He only pushed the braces off of his shoulders with a slight frown, and then reaffirmed his grip to pull himself back up with a surprising amount of strength.

Sora's hands naturally rose to support the other boy's back as he hung there, without him really having to think about the action, but he stared hard at the point between Riku' shoulder blades as he fought the strange sensation that was buzzing beneath his skin. It was a reckless feeling - almost one of abandon as he considered the possibility that he was not as hopelessly doomed to his fate as he might have thought – but at the same time he felt what could only be considered awe as he realized how genuine Riku had just been with him. He rarely met people of such sincerity at all, let alone someone that would reach out to him so readily after less than two days, and for just a moment something surreal settled around him as he wondered how it had happened that he was considering running away with someone that he barely knew at all.

And, even stranger, that the thought of actually doing so made him happier than anything he had felt in a very long time.

A sigh escaped Riku' lips as he lightly fell back to the ground, but it was not one of defeat. He glanced back over his shoulder slightly as he murmured, "I think there's something back there. Can you give me a lift?"

"Uh, sure." Sora fingers curled into his palms once, and his breath felt strangely short as he reached forward to wrap his hands around Riku' waist, instead. He could just feel the edge of Riku' ribcage beneath his thumbs as the other boy tensed with the movement, and there was only sinewy muscle beneath his grip as he helped to lift him up just a little bit higher than before.

"How did you get that scar?" Sora asked as he lifted the older boy up again, without thinking about what was saying. Without the suspenders there to hold it in place, Riku' shirt had ridden up slightly to expose the long scratch that marred the skin above his hipbone, and it had once more caught Sora's attention as it hovered somewhere in front of his face. The question flew from his lips before he could stop it.

This time, Riku paused a moment before dropping onto his feet completely. Sora's hands rested on his waist for a moment before he withdrew them again; taken aback by the way that Riku simply turned around to look into his face from a few short inches away. His eyes were incredibly blue from such a close distance. He only stopped and stared at Sora for several seconds, mild scrutiny lingering in his gaze as he did so, before he licked his lips and brought back the cheerful smile that seemed perpetually lingering beneath the surface of his expression – but for the first time, Sora wondered whether or not it was completely genuine.

"We've all got our family traditions, right?" he said in an odd tone, meeting Sora's eyes without blinking, and the younger boy nodded once. Though his voice was light, there was something dark clinging to the very edges of Riku' expression and the unblinking way that he stared into Sora's face as he spoke. "We weren't that big on proper manners and schedules in my house, but every Thursday my mum would cook a full meal for us all and she'd make me and my sisters all sit around the table for it so we could chat and spend time together like a good family. My dad used to spice things up a bit sometimes, too. I used to tell my sisters it was 'dinner-plate discus," he murmured, with a strange smile flitting across his face, "and we'd have a good laugh about it. He didn't have a very good throwing arm, though. He missed." Wordlessly, he gestured to his side with a flourish.

Sora winced sympathetically. "What was he aiming for?"

"Me mother," Riku replied, smilingly and with such a jaunty tone that Sora very nearly missed the words that were actually being spoken. The older boy's expression softened into normalcy once more as he noted the stunned look that crossed Sora's face, and he finally lost the eerie cheerfulness that had let him say those words without batting an eyelid as he shrugged resignedly. "He was drunk, and he chucked his glass over the table at her because he thought that she'd taken the rest of his whiskey away, when he'd actually just finished off the last drops last night. But it smashed on the edge of the table instead, I moved to push my mum out of the way, and a little piece got left behind when I stepped back again."

He said the words so simply, almost matter-of-factly, that Sora actually felt something turn over in his stomach with the weight of the horror that swept through him.

"Although," the older boy continued offhandedly, "the next morning, he came into my room, painfully sober, and he told me that he couldn't have a better son and changed my bandage for me, so it's bit of an interesting story, that one." Riku shrugged once, but then his body became still and calm again as he blinked once. "But he's gone now," he said, blankly, "and he left not so long after that, so I suppose I got it off easy there. You've still got it happening."

A choked noise escaped Sora's throat without his permission, and he shook his head several times as he pushed his hair across his forehead ashamedly. "I hardly think it even compares, now," he muttered, breathing deeply. "I can't believe you let me go on and on – I'm so sorry that happened to you," he managed sincerely, his eyes clouding over with pain and sympathy. He had never felt something so intensely for someone else's experience in his life; he could not remember the last time that such simply spoken words and images had had such a physical effect on him, but he was fighting the uncomfortable feeling of his pulse thudding hard in his chest. "I can't even imagine what that was like."

An odd look passed over Riku' face as he said, "But you don't have to. Your dad might not be throwing crockery against the walls anytime soon, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be put out on his arse for what he's doing to you."

Sora blinked.

A confusing slew of emotions passed through him in the space of a stuttering heartbeat as the other boy spoke those words; offering them up with an expression filled with such understanding that Sora thought he could actually feel his heart swell with the borrowed emotion swimming in Riku' gaze. Sora's mind flashed through several dozen memories of bitter comments and smarting remarks from his father over the years – ones that he only brought out in moments of particular self-pity, when he almost wanted to find something to hate himself with – but in an instant they were tempered with bright blue empathy and the first reassurance he had ever received that his father was the one in the wrong. Roxas had done his best to sympathize with him, and he had certainly put as much effort and crudity he could summon into badmouthing him after a bad day, but Sora was certain this was the first time that someone had actually stepped up to tell him that he wasn't simply being rebellious for complaining about his father's harsh, controlling nature.

Rather than improving with familiarity, the surreal feeling was only getting worse; his stomach fluttered with the intensity of it.

"Thank you," he managed belatedly, after staring for far too long in a blank state of shock.

Riku looked rather startled by that. "For what?"

"For…" Sora trailed off, his voice dropping to only the deepest, incoherent mumble, and then he only shrugged both of his shoulders resignedly as he realized he didn't have the words to adequately explain the gratitude that had been instilled within him.

Fortunately, the gentle look that momentarily appeared in the older boy's features was enough to let him know that at least some of the message had made it through.

Then, a new, mischievous grin lit Riku' face as he jerked his head back toward the shelf and very sweetly asked, "Do you trust me, Sora?

"Wait, so if you're trying to get a job as a singer in America," Axel said slowly, pausing in their tiny doorway as he glanced curiously back at Leon, "why did you accept the job as one of the dish-hands, instead? They've got loads of positions as entertainment here, they would have loved you."

"I tried for that first," Leon explained, shrugging. Though his words were calm, there was a slight bitterness lingering in the set of his mouth and the hardening that occurred around his eyes as he spoke. "They said they'd get back to me about that one, and then offered me the cleaning job not two minutes after I'd auditioned. The worst part is that I was better than anyone else there."

Axel's frown was puzzled as he pulled out of the room into the corridor, stretching slightly as his hungry stomach became a little more vocal than it had been earlier. He and Leon had spent the majority of the lazy morning trading stories and explanations, given that neither had any real urge to try and fight their way to consciousness after surviving the night shift – and knowing that they had another one waiting for them later that evening. Leon had learned far too much about he and Riku' past as farmhands, dishwashers, cheaters, con artists, pickpockets and mostly any other preoccupation that passed them by in their sad little street lives – and Axel had enjoyed a first-hand look into the stereotyping and segregation of their fair country in the form of discriminatory employment.

He had already told them that he was trying to become a singer when they had first set foot in the room, which was too small to contain any secrets, but Axel had felt more than annoyed at the fact that their new friend had been denied his chance on board the boat when he really only appeared to have a dark tan, at most.

"It's ridiculous," Axel muttered, shaking his head. "I bet you'll end up in a club somewhere, making loads of money, and then you'll just get to sit back and watch them all come back grovelling again. You're going to be huge, and one day they'll all just look back on their time on the Titanic and wonder why they never thought to get the autograph of that bloke in the kitchens while they had the chance. Mark my words, man."

Leon laughed, in a way that was both embarrassed and slightly flattered. "Thanks, mate," he said playfully, shutting the door behind them. "Well this future star has got to go get your uniforms cleaned, so I'll meet up with you later, shall I?"

"Sure," Axel returned with a smile, and waved the other boy off; watching the bemused smile that lingered on Leon's face as he walked away and disappeared down the corridor.

The first thing that Axel noticed upon turning back around to go down his own path, was the slightly confused look on the face of the boy that was standing at the end of the corridor, index finger pressing to his temple as he turned in a circle and peered around the hall with an utterly blank look in his eyes. As Axel watched, he turned in another circle and paused again to survey the different paths that extended out from that crossroads. From his clothes alone Axel knew he didn't belong there in any sense. Regardless, the lost look on his face was enough to force Axel to help him – it also made him smother a small laugh as he did so, but he still moved toward assistance.

"Oi, mate," he called, lifting his voice slightly, and the boy turned toward him instantly.

Roxas had been lost for almost ten minutes trying to find his way down to the very loosely described 'lower levels' that Sora had directed him to earlier, and so it was a profound relief to find someone that was willing to speak with him. As of yet, he had experienced the joy of trying to ignore the snubbing looks of the men that bustled past him and the resentment that blurred the eyes of the sweaty engine workers that had apparently only just come up for air.

"I'm looking for someone," Roxas said blankly, looking around the corridor as he spoke with a painfully lost look on his face. "He's got spiky hair, and he's about this tall—"

Axel cut him off just as the other boy was about to measure out a rough estimate of Sora's height with his hand, and Roxas's arm was still hovering in the air as the Irishman calmly asked, "Oh, do you mean Sora? Yeah, he was in here a little while ago but he and Riku left to go check around the ship. They haven't come back yet. I don't think he even really said if they were coming back to at all, actually. But you're welcome to stay, if you like."

"Oh," Roxas exclaimed, startled. "Thank you."

Axel opened his mouth to speak again, but then his light blue eyes darted back down the hall once, and it seemed that he cut himself off before starting a new sentence. "What's your name?" he asked, very swiftly, and his expression lightened with curiosity as he stood there, tilting his head slightly.

"Roxas Payne," the other boy replied, jarred into politeness once more as he extended a hand that the other boy shook once, firmly, before releasing him.

"Cheers," Axel replied in a friendly voice, and then, "Step back, Roxas."

Confusion crossed Roxas's face briefly, and his brow furrowed as he leant forward a little bit. "I'm sorry?"

"Step back," Axel repeated calmly, and then he took the matter into his own hands – quite literally, as he casually stepped forward to press his palm flat to Roxas's chest so that he could ease him back to the opposite side of the wall. He paid no attention to Roxas's mild surprise as he did so, and then retreated to lean against the opposite wall only a moment later with a cheery grin and an expectant look.

It took only seconds before Roxas was made aware of the reason behind that seemingly random act, and then he had to suppress his gasp as there was a sudden bellowing of noise to his left, and he whipped around in time to see a familiar, dimpled grin as it flashed past him with the rattling of spokes and the squawked protests that were falling from Riku' mouth as they went. He had only a moment to wonder where they had found a bicycle on a ship – and, more importantly, why they had felt the need to barrel it through the very crowded hallways with Sora sitting on the handlebars – before they wheeled unsteadily around a corner, nearly sending Sora flying to the ground before they disappeared from sight again. Roxas heard a few more exultant, laughing shouts before they dwindled away to nothingness, and he was left with his mouth hanging open as he stared after his friend.

Axel didn't seem to share his bewilderment as his mouth twisted to the side and he shrugged once. "I'm going to go and get some food," he stated calmly, "do you want to come? They'll be fine," he added, when Roxas's confused gaze moved over to meet the blonde boy's and he simply stared. "Riku'll look after him, no matter how it looks right now, I promise."

"Alright," Roxas agreed meekly, still somewhat lost despite the fact that he'd found the exact place that he was looking for, and it was with a helpless kind of resignation that he turned and joined the Irish boy's side as they headed back the way that he had come.

—-

It took the third bicycle crash for Riku to finally decide that taking it out of storage for a laugh was not as practical an idea as it had seemed at the time. Even with Sora leaning his full weight into Riku' chest to brace them both, it was simply impossible to try and successfully swerve to avoid the belligerent workers that barreled past them without concern for the fact that the slightest disturbance sent them crashing into an ungainly heap of limbs and spinning wheels in the middle of the corridors. That, and the fact that they had to carry it up each flight of stairs on the arduous journey back up to the top deck had been wearisome enough to convince them to surreptitiously lean it up against a randomly chosen room before they scuttled up the nearest staircase, snorting their laughter as they ditched the evidence of their meaningless thievery.

"Don't you think someone will wonder why there's now a bicycle outside their room?" Sora chuckled, looking over his shoulder as he reached over to unlock his own rooms. They were only making a brief stop so that Sora could swap out some of his clothes for some looser fittings – given that their activities were becoming less sedentary than he might have anticipated.

Riku only shrugged. "Maybe they'll think of it as a gift. Unless, of course, the owner finds it there and then starts a whole inquisition into why some innocent bystander has stolen it – or we can start spreading rumors about a ghost roaming the ship now, just to be on the safe side."

"A cycling-themed ghost, I'd imagine?" Sora asked, laughing again, and he had a confused moment to wonder why his door was unlocked as he fell into his rooms and found the reason standing very rigidly in the center of his living room, hands in pockets and eyes familiarly empty.

Sora stumbled to a stop, swallowing down his last laugh before he straightened to address his father with a small, silent nod.

Before he could say a word, his father's gaze snapped over his shoulder to where Riku was still standing, as frozen as the younger boy that he was following into the room. "Well?" he said, tiredly. "If you're going to straighten the room, do it quick before I decide you'd be best moved to another chamber instead of this one."

"No," Sora murmured, his brow scrunching at that degrading instruction, but he felt a brief hand on his back, resting between his shoulder blades for the space of a second before he saw that the older boy was already moving around him to walk further into the room. He stopped once he'd past Sora's father, and then quite obviously stopped walking so that he could meet the younger boy's gaze.

"Shut the door."

Sora could only conceal his sigh as he complied, and when he turned back he was immediately assaulted by the unwelcome sight of his father standing only a foot away, nostrils flaring and eyes narrowing into a glare.

"You're drunk," he accused, disgustedly, and there was nothing but cold disappointment showing in his gaze as he stared down at Sora. "As if slighting your mother and Kairi weren't enough of an insult to me, you instead chose to stumble drunkenly into your rooms in the middle of the afternoon—"

"I'm not drunk," Sora cut in wearily. He could almost feel the happiness trickling away from him by the second as if were a physical substance running through his veins. With Riku, his heart had pumped it fiercely throughout his entire body; and now it drained away with every passing second. "I tripped over the threshold, that's all; I've not been drinking anything."

His father's face was hard, and his movements were brisk as he leaned forward. "Don't lie to me, son, not when I can see it all over your face. If you're not drunk, then…" He trailed off; he had come close enough to unsubtly inhale through his nostrils so that he could smell that there was no liquor on Sora's breath. The spiky-haired lad stared unflinchingly into his father's face as he pointedly exhaled through pursed lips, breathing only the scent of the mints that Riku had snagged from the maid's cart a few minutes ago, while they were dragging the bicycle up another flight of stairs.

However, he didn't feel that pointing out that his father simply had no idea what his real smile looked like was going to help him in that particular situation.

"I got lost," Sora said, pressing forward before his father could make more assumptions about what had kept him. The way he saw it; the man was going to believe his own untrue explanations for Sora's behavior, and so there was no need to attempt honesty if the truth had so little hope. "I was looking for some of my baggage earlier, and then I couldn't find my way back up to the rooms properly."

He supposed that it was fortunate that his father already had a very high opinion of his incompetence as he snorted softly and nodded as if to say 'Of course you did'. "I should have known that you'd find some way to lose your way in a ship with maps pressed onto every other wall," he said calmly, as if it where common knowledge. "If you must feel the need to inconvenience someone, at least leave it to another one of the staff rather than your own family; send someone else down next time, so that you don't keep the ladies waiting because you don't know how to distinguish between signs."

Behind his back, Sora accidentally glanced over to where Riku was standing just a few meters away; his expression pulling into a strange, disbelieving look that had his eyebrows lifting without humor. He shifted his gaze to meet Sora's, and the younger boy could almost see the intent that sprang into those blue eyes as his expression stilled and his mouth curled into a hard smile.

With a finger to his lips, Riku took a small step forward as he gestured for Sora to continue in the conversation.

"I'm sorry, sir," Sora apologized blandly, quickly turning his attention back to his father.

"I asked you for one thing on this journey, Sora – just one. I asked that you could, for once, at least put some effort into acting like the man that you should be rather than the child that I hoped to leave behind. Do you do this deliberately? Do you think incompetence is something to be celebrated? Do you think that anyone is going to respect you for being able to shirk your responsibilities, or to ignore them completely? People respect diligence and intelligence – and so I'd highly recommend you try to find some of either if you hope to even be remotely taken seriously in your life."

His father continued talking, as he always would, but Sora barely paid attention to the self-righteous dribble that came from that man's mouth as he tried not to watch Riku behind him. Caught up on his own spiel, his father seemed not to notice the lithe youth that had approached so that he stood nearly pressed to his back; ducking around only once to flash a quick grin to Sora from behind his father's shoulder before he vanished again. Then, Sora's throat nearly closed as he saw Riku' fingers reached for the edge of the leather wallet that protruded slightly from his father's trouser pocket.

He wanted to shout out a warning that Riku might as well have been trying to steal the man's heart out of his chest – in every sense of the phrase – but he didn't even dare look away from his father's face as he watched those cheeks color with passion and his mouth twist into a familiar, disappointed grimace.

"Do you understand?" were the only words that Sora caught for several seconds, and so he very meekly replied, "Yes, sir" once more before he continued watching his father being robbed by the boy that had just become his favorite person in the known world.

Sora only just managed to smother his smirk as that leather case slipped free of his father's pocket, and Riku stuffed it down the inside of his shirt before he quickly retreated – too quickly, it turned out, as he took too many steps backward and accidentally stumbled into the coffee table that sat at the foot of the loveseat. His elbow nearly dislodged the vase atop that end table, and he let out a startlingly loud expletive as he lurched to try and catch it before it fell. Sora caught a look at the impression of the wallet against the inside of Riku' shirt as it fell forward, but then the older boy had righted himself again; whirling around with a profoundly bad attempt at a nonchalant expression appearing on his features.

"Sorry," he apologized quickly, and Sora felt an odd smirk tug at his lips at the brazen look that Riku turned upon his father as he shrugged.

"No, I'm sorry," his father returned, the rude tone in which he spoke those words rendering the pleasantry completely useless, "but is there something that you need from me? Or have you forgotten the way back to the exit while you were standing there?"

"I think you're supposed to tip him," Sora put in calmly, taking full advantage of the situation that had now presented itself to them both. It took every ounce of willpower that he had not to meet Riku' bright gaze as he looked mildly into his father's face and gestured to prod him along. "It's customary for most of the staff here, and it'll probably be the same in America."

His father's face contorted in all kinds of strange ways for several seconds, leaving him looking both bewildered and belligerent all at once as he stared and clearly wondered when his son had developed the audacity to speak so forwardly. "I'm aware of that, thank you," he stated, and then turned back to face Riku once more.

The next few seconds were ones that Sora savored, so that he could nearly taste the joy he felt on his tongue as he swallowed against the laughter that threatened to overwhelm him as he watched his father reach back toward the empty pocket that awaited him. It was now Riku' turn to affect a polite expression and still his gaze, but Sora stared straight into the older boy's face with nothing but absolute, wicked mirth glinting in his own as he bit down on his lower lip, hard. His father only patted his trouser pocket once, and upon finding that devoid of the leather wallet he expected; slid his hands into the inside compartments of his jacket, too.

"Is there a problem, sir?" Riku asked evenly, raising both eyebrows, and a tiny squeaking noise escaped Sora's throat as he watched his father's back to rigidly straight in an instant. "If you don't have any money, then that's perfectly understandable. I'll just leave."

There was absolutely nothing worse that he could say in that moment, and Sora had to wonder how Riku had known that. "No!" his father said firmly, holding up a hand to keep the boy in place. "No, you'll have your money."

"Really, it's—"

"Would you like to borrow some of mine?" Sora cut in, before he could help himself. "I've got my wallet right here, if you need it."

"No," he ground out, teeth audibly clacking together, "I've just misplaced it temporarily."

"Don't be ridiculous," Sora chided him, and as he spoke the words he knew that he was pushing the line. He could see it in the way that his father's veins had started pulsating in his temple; it was the pride vein, that one, and it was never good when he began showing through his skin. "I have the money right here, and I'll just—"

"You will just hold your tongue."

Instantly, Sora fell silent at the whip crack that was his father's tone with that one sentence. In part, he felt satisfaction for the way that he had so aggravated the man he loathed, but the rest of him was so used to falling into that sullen quiet that it was a natural habit to shut his mouth and glare rather than stepping forward to make matters worse.

To Riku, he added, "You'll stay right here if you want your money, and I'll be back to pay you what you're owed. As for you…" That cold stare moved onto Sora next. "You'll remain in that same spot until I return, so that we can have a small discussion about 'insolence'. You will not move an inch, do I make myself clear?"

"You do," Sora replied, absently wondering how it would look if he stabbed that vein with the letter opener that was glinting on the surface of the nearby desk.

There was a brief beat, as his father stood rigid and glared at Sora with open distaste rioting over his features, and then the man turned and stepped around his son to get to the door; avoiding even the slightest brush of their elbows as he moved around him. The sound of the door slamming shut was jarringly loud, but Sora did not flinch at all.

Of course, he instantly took a small, unnecessary step from the place that he had been assigned to so that he stood a few inches to the side, and then became still again. His eyes were deadened as he stared absently at a spot on the far end of the room.

It was silent for a very long, drawn-out minute.

Then, "Sora," Riku said softly, in a tone that was very different from the ones that he had used so far. There was gentleness to it now that Sora had not realized it could take; as if Riku were the one that was felt the need for it, rather than Sora. When the younger boy turned to glance over at him, Riku' eyes were completely open and honest, and his voice was even as he asked, "Do you want to stay here?"

It didn't take long for Sora to reply. "No."

"Would you like to be elsewhere when he gets back?"

"Yes," he answered, honestly, and a strange smile made its way to his lips as he did so.

"One more question," Riku added in a quiet voice, his expression strangely intense. "And this is very important… what's your opinion on cabaret music?"

A startled laugh burst from Sora's lips as the ridiculous query, and Riku joined for a moment before he broke out of his rigid posture and stepped forward so that he could join the younger boy in the center of the room. He hesitated only a moment before he reached out to squeeze Sora's arm reassuringly, sliding his hand down from his bicep to a point above his wrist so that the other boy could feel his fingertips on the back of his hand in that one comforting touch.

Riku' fingers were warm on Sora's skin – just as Sora's skin began to warm beneath Riku' fingers, and he felt a strange crushing sensation somewhere inside his ribcage.

"Let's go," the older boy suggested, one side of his mouth pulling up in a smile that crinkled his eye, and he kept that hold on Sora's wrist so that he could tug him out of the door again, leaving the room glaringly empty behind them. Riku paused only to lightly toss the wallet back down onto the center of the rug before he shut the door behind them both.


	6. Chapter 6

"When the golden sun sinks in the hills, and the toil of the long day is o'er, though the road may be long in the lilt of the song, I forget I was weary before." Axel's voice was as loud as it ever was as he sang, proudly and exuberantly, and he did not bother to check himself for the volume as he stood up on the rickety bar stool; hands held wide at his sides and his head thrown back in a dramatic serenade while the others fell about laughing at his performance.

As it turned out, there had been some sort of point to Riku' question about Sora's opinion on cabaret music – to a fault – but he could not have said that he had anticipated that style of song when they'd all gathered in the emptied out dining hall, collapsed on the stage while the other staff cleared up the remains of their supper. Sora had absently wondered whether his family had noticed his absence while he had taken off with Riku for the rest of the evening, enjoying the company of the other boys as well as his new found freedom, but the concern had rapidly fallen from his mind as he had watched Leon clambering onto the stage set up in the middle of the massive hall while the others followed him up.

"I'm going to be the one performing here, soon," the boy had stated, gesturing firmly to the floorboards beneath his feet as he stepped up to the imaginary microphone that had already been cleared away for safety reasons. All that remained was the small chair left to accommodate the musical entertainment of the evening, and the ballroom had lost some of its mystery without the different decorations added onto that platform.

Nevertheless, they had all slouched onto the stage alongside him as Leon addressed his imaginary audience and Riku had cheered and whooped him encouragingly. Their voices had echoed strangely throughout the gilded dining hall that circled out from that point, undoubtedly due to the very design of the room, and the acoustics had been more than welcome.

Roxas was there, too, and Sora had not feigned his surprise at seeing his friend stumbling into place at Axel's side, grinning so widely that it seemed his entire face should have been aching from the strain of it. The red haired boy had been cackling with laughter as they went, banging elbows and staggering through the hallways, and there had been only the briefest moments of exchanged shock at being confronted with a strange mirror of themselves. Then Riku had exclaimed his delight upon seeing Axel's face, swept his friend up in a tight hug and whirled him around, and the momentary awkwardness had dissolved into more camaraderie as they continued together as one, picking Leon up on the way.

Now, Sora turned his head to the side to address the boy that was sprawled very closely beside him, elbow leaning into the ground while he grinned at his Irish friend. "So why is Axel the one singing if we've got an aspiring singer sitting two meters away from us?" he murmured amusedly, as the red haired boy continued to sing raucously in the background.

"Far ahead, where the blue shadows fall…"

"Because it's never wise to interrupt an Irish boy while he's singing," Riku whispered back joyfully, openly laughing as Axel nearly toppled off of the spindle-legged chair in the midst of his performance. Whether he intended to or not, he swayed to the side so that his head was nearly resting against Sora's bicep as he glanced up into the younger boy's face and added, "That, and it's far too much fun this way. You should see him when he's actually drunk."

"…I shall come to contentment and rest…"

Sora wasn't sure what was more disturbing: that Riku was so obviously entertained by the idea of this escalating any more than it already had, or that Axel had taken it upon himself to belt out that little song while he was stone-cold sober. Either way, he found that his own cheeks were splitting with a grin as Axel's voice suddenly ripped much louder than it had been a moment ago.

"A-a-and," he bellowed, the note wavering with the laughter that threatened to bear him to the ground, "the toils of the day shall be all charmed away in my little gray home in the—Oh, bugger me," he exclaimed suddenly, and he barely managed to let his arms desperately windmill at his sides before he started to slip off of the seat of the bar stool, hurtling toward the stage.

Had Roxas not been there ready to catch his newest companion, Axel surely would have collapsed straight down off the edge of the platform into a heap on the floor beyond. Fortunately, the other boy had shot to his feet the second Axel began to list, and so he was already anticipating the fall that let him step into place to bear the brunt of the red haired boy's weight. They both groaned at the impact, staggering uncontrollably, but it took only a moment to stand once more.

By that time, however, they were both sniggering so much that they merely sat straight down where they had stopped; Roxas's arms closed around Axel's chest, hugging him closer than he had done with anyone back at Eton, and Sora's grin had reached new levels of sweet pain as he watched his oldest friend laugh himself silly.

"Riku, how does the rest of it go, again?" Axel demanded, once his laughter had calmed to the point where he could speak again. The occasional chuckle still slipped from his mouth as he spoke, but for the most part he regained control over himself as he glanced over at the older boy, blue eyes sparkling with mirth. "He used to get up on the bar in the middle of the night to sing that one," he explained to the others, laughing at the memory all over again.

The older boy's brow drew together in an exaggerated frown. "I don't know what you're talking about, mate," he said, very seriously, but he could not quite hide his smile as he spoke.

Sora nudged him with his elbow a little, catching the other boy's attention so that he could ask, "You sing?"

Riku nudged him right back, shaking his head determinedly. "No, definitely not."

"Go on," Axel urged him playfully. "I know you know it."

Almost imperceptibly, Riku' eyes seemed to flicker up to Sora's face as his teeth buried themselves into his bottom lip. He lingered there for a moment, a flickering kind of nervousness playing in his gaze, and then he cleared his throat before he glanced back down to the others, shaking his head in slow denial. "No, I really can't remember it either. Get me a few glasses of beer and maybe it'll come back to me," he suggested, shrugging one shoulder. The shift brought him a little closer to Sora again, so that the younger boy could feel almost the entire length of Riku' arm as it pressed against his own, just touching the side of his leg at the same time. They had somehow fallen into place together when they sat down, resting at the back of the stage so that Sora could sit up, and while he had not thought anything of it at the time he now wondered at how close they were sitting.

It should not have brought him any concern at all, and Sora didn't want to feel nervous around Riku anymore, but an odd feeling was simmering inside him as the other boys launched into a mock argument about the lyrics while Riku hid his face and waved them away again, denying that he knew anything about what they were talking about. The atmosphere was incredibly light and teasing – almost unbearably so, with the obvious affection between them all – and yet there was the strangest tension tugging at his ribcage as he sat there, sharing the warmth of the body that was so very close beside him.

Riku' voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Sora, you'll be on my side about this, won't you?" he asked sweetly, fingertips tugging gently at the edge of his trousers as he grinned up at the younger boy. "It's only fair that Axel has to go, isn't it?"

He had missed some of the conversation, evidently, but Sora knew enough to guess what he had been pulled into. He exchanged only a brief glance with Leon across the length of the platform, earning himself a bright grin and a wink from the other boy, before he turned back and shrugged both shoulders. "Well," he said in a considering tone, glancing between both Axel and Riku as if he were putting real thought into the matter, "if you're not going to give as great a performance as that, I think it's only fair that you have to be the one to go."

Instantly, Axel burst out laughing again, a terribly smug sound. He was surprisingly steady on his feet despite the red spots of exertion that had settled on his cheeks, and he calmly jogged across the stage so that he could bend down to pull Sora into a very tight hug, chuckling in his ear the entire time. "Can I just say that I love you?" he snickered, shooting a massively pleased look at Riku as he crushed the life out of the spiky-haired boy's body for a moment longer. Sora actually gasped a bit when he was released, not expecting just how strong the Irishman truly was.

"You should always side with me from now on, brother," Axel advised as he retreated, practically skipping his way back to plonk himself down beside Roxas once more, and his face was absolutely glowing as he beamed around at them all.

Suddenly, the crushing feeling that Sora felt bruising his insides wasn't entirely to do with the bear hug that had nearly suffocated him. Despite his playful expression, Riku' eyes were incredibly warm and affectionate as he lifted them to meet Sora's and his smile changed just a bit as he shifted to look at him. The others were laughing and making fun of one another, Roxas included, and none of the drama that had surrounded his life was present in the small circle of friends that had abruptly cropped up in his life.

They were all so genuinely smiling at him, Riku looked so happy that it was almost blinding to look down in his face in that moment, he could feel the older boy's fingers still resting on his thigh where they had fallen without thought, touching him so naturally that it caused him an actual physical pain in his chest and in just a manner of seconds those separate sensations and the overwhelming feelings that they brought with them combined to make his heart pound fiercely in his chest. His smile slowly slid from his face, letting him inhale a shaky breath that went unnoticed beneath the sounds of more laughter and joy – and before he could consciously recognize why he felt so unbelievably lost all of a sudden, he found that he was murmuring a quick excusal to the boy at his side and watching Riku' fingers fall away from him as he got to his feet again.

He didn't go far, of course, but his footsteps seemed deafening to his ears as he briskly walked to the nearest exit and fled out onto the small section of deck that extended out from the massive ballroom. He shivered in the cool air, but he did not fight the breeze that eased the flush from his cheeks and soothed some of the panic that had so gripped him back inside.

It took only a moment for him to hear the door clack open again.

"Sora?"

Riku' voice was both curious and concerned at the same time, and as he stepped out into the circle of light being cast onto the balcony Sora was struck with a sudden sense of déjà vu, as he recalled when their situations had been reversed. Though Sora was not leaning recklessly over the bannister so that he was in danger of plummeting into the tumultuous waves rising up the side of their vessel, he was standing much the way that Riku had been when Sora had been the one walking out from the inside of the boat, greeting the boy that awaited him with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.

Then, with a jolt somewhere in the region of his stomach, he abruptly realized that it had only been just over a day ago since that exchange. There was an impossible nostalgia swimming contentedly within his mind as he recalled that somewhat confronting conversation, and yet it had not even been 48 hours since they had truly met one another as they were.

He almost felt something like alarm at the thought of how hopelessly quickly he'd been overcome by one single person, but then his eyes met Riku' again where the older boy was watching him quietly, and the agitation was instantly dampened again by the ease with which he saw the concern in that gaze.

"Are you alright?" Riku asked, when Sora remained silent for several long seconds. "What are you doing out here? Aren't you freezing?" The older boy wrapped his arms around his chest, sucking in his cheeks briefly as he shivered against the cool air. In truth, Sora had nearly forgotten about it. "I swear, you'd think that we were going straight over ice rather than water, it's insane. They didn't warn us about that bit before we got on."

"It was written on the ticket," Sora deadpanned, keeping his expression perfectly blank and neutral, and he had the satisfaction of watching Riku' face slacken out for a moment before he caught onto the mirth glinting in the younger boy's eyes.

A soft snort escaped him, and his eyes dropped to the floor as he shook his head. He was smiling when he glanced back up again, though, and Sora honestly wondered how it was possible that his cheeks could still warm in response to those blue eyes when the air around them was so frigid. "So what are you doing out here?" Riku asked again, more jovially this time. "I assume it's not to enjoy the incredible view of the ocean," he said archly, and he swept one arm out in a grand gesture that encompassed the entire sea that was stretched out before them; invisible to the naked eye from where they stood on the deck, staring out into what was essentially a black, inky splashing mess rather than the spectacular waters they might have appreciated earlier.

"No," Sora chuckled, glancing over his shoulder once before he leant back against the railing. His smile faltered, though, and he hesitated before giving the real, far more embarrassing reason for excusing himself from the merriment.

Riku noticed. "What is it?" he asked softly. He forgot his shivering posture as he stepped forward, arms falling loosely to his sides. "Are we being too loud in there? Because you know you don't have to stick around for the rest of the night if you don't want to – no one's going to blame you. I know that we can get a bit rowdy together, so—"

"No, it's not that, either," Sora said quickly, shaking his head. "I'm having fun, I am. Leon's great, and I doubt Roxas would forgive me if I took him away from Axel right now, so that's definitely not the problem."

Riku waited a moment before he asked, "Then what is the problem?"

Sora's words came slowly, weighed down by the confusion and doubt that he was already feeling and the childish fear of rejection that welled inside him at the prospect of being so honest. Rationally, he believed that Riku would appreciate candor, and that he was certainly not going to mock him for being truthful about what he was feeling – especially given that his brow had drawn together in a worried frown – but there was still that insecure part of him that whispered that he should stay silent and simply return to the table to enjoy himself. Or, at the very least, pretend to enjoy himself.

But the older boy was still watching him, patiently waiting for his reply, and so Sora could do nothing but let his confession fall from his lips as the cool air swept them away.

"The problem is…" he said in a low voice, staring at some point in the knotted floorboards beneath their feet, "… that there's no problem. And I know that doesn't make any sense," he added swiftly, "but I don't know how to word it any other way than that. I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with this, with all of you, because I've never had to do anything like this before."

"Is this because of us?" Riku asked, blankly. "Because me and Axel snuck on board when we shouldn't have, or 'cause we're ratbags without any sort of money to our name?"

His tone made it clear that he doubted that possibility, but Sora was quick to deny it nonetheless. "No, that's got nothing to do with it. It's not what you have, or what you've done, it's just…" His long fingers wrapped themselves around the railing at his back, flexing and fidgeting with discomfort as he searched for the elusive words to describe the intangible nervousness he was feeling. "I've never done anything like this. I've never had to sit and wonder why it was that people were talking to me; there was always a reason, a purpose. Whether it was school or my parents, nearly everyone I know was put in my life for some sort of goal – either theirs or mine, it didn't matter too much – and so I knew how I was supposed to act with them. You smile for the relatives that come around, you be cheeky with the boys from school over the dinner table because you've got nothing else to do at that place while the teachers are there and you be quiet and invisible in the corner while new acquaintances are lined up in front of you. I know that, I can handle that, but I've never had someone actually turn around and spend time with me just because they wanted to and no matter what I try to do to make sense of it… Axel really hugged me back there," he said, almost weakly, and he lifted one hand to flap in the direction of the cabin once more. His expression arched with confusion. "He doesn't even know me that well."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Riku asked bewilderedly.

"Yes," Sora told him, voice strained, "but I'm just very much out of my element here and I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it. I don't know how I'm supposed to act when there are people treating me like this, and I'm not used to it just yet. I don't have people calling me 'brother' after just a few hours - and then there's you, and…" His breath left his lungs in a low, deep sigh that moved his chest as he exhaled, closing his eyes for the briefest of moments as he forgot that he was supposed to be keeping some sort of control about him. When he opened them Riku was still there, eyes still brimming with soft understanding.

"… and I'm not used to feeling like this," Sora finished lamely, in a thick voice, and his heart felt strangely hollow as it beat inside his chest, fluttering too quickly.

Conversely, Riku' voice sounded quite thin and breathy as he gently prompted him along with, "Not used to feeling like what?"

"Like…" Sora could only find the words as they were being spoken; he did not give any thought beforehand as he struggled to find some sort of explanation. "Like I'm not just the image that people expect to see from me - not just the person that they wanted to be there, rather than who I am - and like you might actually mean it when you say that you want to know about me, and like for once, I don't have to wait for the moment where I figure out why it is that you're still here and what you want from me in return for spending time with me, because—"

"Because being able to spend time with you is all that I want from you," Riku supplied, very softly, and his tone made it clear that it was any suggestion for what Sora was thinking; it was a statement, not a question.

"Yes."

The older boy's expression was unreadable as he tilted his head and murmured, "And you can't imagine why I'd be so interested in getting to know you, can you?"

Sora wet his lips before he spoke. "No."

"And you can't see how special you are."

A strange noise escaped the younger boy's lips, almost like a scoff, and he shrugged both shoulders helplessly rather than saying 'no', because he feared acknowledging that sentence in any way possible. He released his hold on the bars behind him as he did so, but then simply knotted his hands together in front of his stomach, twisting his fingers together in a thoughtless fidget.

There was a long moment of silence as Riku fell quiet, too, and for several seconds Sora worried that he had been too forward in his confession. After all, he had barely known Riku long enough to share superficial details about his relationships and his feelings, let alone going into detail about the insecurities that he kept hidden from almost every other person he knew. They were practically strangers, no matter how it felt from Sora's perspective, and he didn't want to think too hard on how much damage he could have done by baring the full extent of the pathetic shambles that made up his emotional state.

Then, "Sora," Riku said carefully, staring very strongly into the younger boy's eyes, "do you know how many people know about me and my dad – outside the family? I'll give you a hint; he's sitting inside there, currently singing out some Irish bar songs so that he can feel patriotic."

Sora cracked a smile at that, before he could help himself.

"And do you know how many people I've actually told about me and my dad?" Riku added, and Sora shook his head as his smile slipped away again, replaced with a nervousness he didn't understand. The older boy's expression was calm, still. "It's just you, Sora. And it's not because we happened to be talking about it at the time, or because I thought that you needed any sort of commiseration there because of what's happening to you now – it's because I wanted to tell you. Axel found out because he was there while it was happening, and he helped me through it, but you are the only person that I've ever actually wanted to share that with. Because there is just no one else like you," he stated, plainly, and there was such simplicity to the words that made it sound as though it were an obvious fact rather than a compliment that made Sora's insides become strangely weightless.

"I know it may sound weird," Riku said suddenly, shifting forward ever so slightly, "given that I've only just met you – really, just met you – but I want you to know that you don't have any idea of just how great you are, Sora. They may not see you properly at all, but I do, and you are fucking brilliant," he whispered, and his tone was almost fierce despite the smile that was beginning to bend his mouth.

That brought a laugh to Sora's lips, and it turned into a sigh as he already began shaking his head, caught up in the absurdity of the words that were being given to him so freely. He had not done anything to merit such compliments, and so it seemed impossible that Riku could actually mean them as anything more than an attempt to cheer him up.

And then he felt Riku' fingers touch his own.

The older boy's grip was gentle yet insistent as he carefully slid his hands around Sora's and pulled them apart from where they had been tangled in a tight, anxious double-fist in front of his torso. He soothed out the nervous fidgets that had coiled in those digits with the briefest swipe of his thumbs, tickling the younger boy's palms briefly before he let the very tips of their fingers slot together, lowering their entwined hands to hang between them. It took a moment for Sora to lose the tension that had his hands trying to curl back into fists, but then he inhaled deeply and simply let his arms relax for the first time since he stepped out onto the deck.

"You're amazing," Riku told him gently, and there was a painful amount of sincerity shining in his face as he tipped it up toward Sora's, catching the other boy's gaze and holding it. "I mean it – you are."

Sora's manners had been so ingrained in him from childhood, and yet he believed he had just found an instance where 'thank you' seemed almost an insult, rather than a pleasantry. The words left a bitter taste on his tongue, and so he only remained silent in the hope that his expression would convey what his inadequate words could not.

Riku' smile almost let him believe that it had. "And, for the record," the older boy added lightly, his fingers tightening around Sora's, "I hope you know that I'm not usually this sentimental with people that I've only just met. I don't always crash in stranger's beds at night, or get them drunk, or let them meet my insane, one-man family, so I don't know why you'd think that I've ever done anything like this before, either."

Sora actually felt his heart clench at those words.

It was not the sentence itself at all, really, and in any other circumstance it might have made him laugh again rather than given him something close to palpations as his pulse skittered with emotion. However, while it was obvious that Riku had tried to slip that last statement in with the rest of his joking humor; he could not do so with the same smoothness that he afforded every other sentence that he had spoken so far. Rather than retaining the same lilt of humor that let him smile up into the younger boy's face, his voice and gaze both fell with those last words in a way that was so heartbreakingly uncertain.

Sora had not yet dared to consider the depth of the fascination that he felt for the older boy that had violently intruded on his life, or the reason why he had not yet been able to go more than a minute without thinking of him again, but in that moment a dozen gloriously terrible impulses burst into life within him. It didn't matter to him that it was another man idly playing with his fingers or that it was a near-stranger that was making his heart pound to bursting point, because the idea that someone so impossibly wondrous in his eyes could look nervous because of him was so overwhelming that he couldn't think of such comparatively insignificant details. Riku was beautiful and confident and stunning in every single way that Sora had not known he wanted until right then – and he was lowering his gaze to stare at their hands because of Sora. He looked unsure of himself, as if he somehow worried that Sora would turn him away rather than the other way around, and no minor detail about their lives could have destroyed the need that Sora felt to say and do anything to explain how absurd it was that he could have such an effect on the older boy.

Unfortunately, the desire to reassure Riku in that moment didn't make him any more verbose than he had been a few seconds ago, and his heartfelt, desperate fervor surmounted to little more than a couple of syllables. "No one's ever…" He trailed off, swallowing back the silence that threatened to drown him. "I don't—"

Riku took mercy on him – in a manner of speaking. "Don't be an idiot," he murmured, smirking slightly, and he used the hold that he still had on Sora's fingers to pull the younger boy into an embrace, his arm shifting up to wrap all the way around his neck.

It was just the same déjà vu all over again, as Sora felt the strangest sensation settling around him along with the warmth that seeped straight through his skin. Last time, he had been so stunned by the movement that he'd barely been able to summon the thought to process that he was being hugged before Riku had withdrawn again, but he didn't want to repeat that part of the experience. Instead, he gingerly shuffled forward so that he could wrap his arms around the older boy in return. He felt unaccountably nervous as he did so, but Riku did not flinch away at the contact and so Sora dared to let his arms settle more comfortably around his waist, his fingers locking around his own wrists. Riku was much slimmer than he seemed from a distance, he noticed, and he could feel the ridges of his sides as the slighter boy stretched up to curl his arms around Sora's neck. Though he wouldn't admit it later, Sora felt the smallest thrill in his stomach as he realized that Riku was just standing on his toes in order to remain in that comfortable position.

He felt Riku turn his head slightly as the other boy suddenly muttered, "I knew you were lying about being cold."

It took every ounce of willpower that Sora possessed not to react in that moment – because as Riku shifted to whisper that amused comment in the younger boy's ear, Sora just felt the brush of his lips against the very sensitive skin of his neck. The slew of nerves that flooded his belly then were tinged with despair, because while the sensation of it made his head spin pleasantly; he was hopeless to fight against the dizzy feeling that immediately followed after. He found it depressingly ironic that Riku' remark about him being cold should have made his body feel so very warm all of a sudden.

"Right, uh, sorry," Sora managed, eloquently. "I honestly wasn't thinking about it."

"Here," the other boy murmured, and he shifted slightly so that his hands ran along Sora's back, chafing slightly in what was probably an effort to try and soothe the shiver that had just rippled down his spine. The younger boy could only assume that Riku was attributing it to the cold, rather than deliberately torturing him with the knowledge that he had actually caused that tremor rather than anything else.

Riku pressed closer all of a sudden, and every single trace of careful decorum fled Sora's mind as the older boy's cheek pressed to his own, lending him some of the warmth exuding from that lithe body as his hands comfortingly stroked up and down his back. Sora's eyes closed. Riku' fingertips brushed the nape of his neck several times, and the sensation of those trailing hands became all that Sora could focus on as his eyelids became warmer and his breaths became much shorter. Riku gripped his shoulder briefly, thumb pressing into the sensitive spot beneath his collarbone, and Sora's teeth gently bit into his lower lip for a moment as he tried to ignore the tiny buzz of sensation that was emanating from that touch.

Then, a strange sort of panic set into his blood.

He knew without a doubt that Riku' intentions had been innocent in being so close and affectionate with him, and so it only intensified the guilt he felt at the very different kind of feeling that had begun to coil inside him. He could do nothing to stop it, of course, and it was in no way deliberate – but his hands flattened out against the small of Riku' back as he inhaled deeply through his nose, fighting against the irrepressible sensation tightening inside his lungs. Almost, he wanted to cry out for help because his cheeks were darkening with a flush, he didn't completely understand the horrible desire that was making his thoughts tumble together and at the end of it all Riku was right there pressed against him, his hands ceaselessly stroking along Sora's body with no thought to what he was doing to the other boy.

He felt powerless to stop it when Riku' touch slowed from that chafing rhythm to a slower caress, as the older boy pulled back so that he could find Sora's gaze with his own. His fingers still slid back and forth along the younger boy's spine, but he had lost that clinical determination as he rocked back to look into his face.

"You're shaking," he said quietly. His eyes were so very blue.

Sora swallowed noisily. "I'm cold."

It was the first lie of the night.

He could not remember the last time he had felt so terrified as he lingered beneath that unbearably bright gaze, completely paralyzed by the look that was slowly unfolding in Riku' face. He could almost see that Riku knew he was lying, no matter his relative inexperience with those features, but it helped that he had no grasp over the rioting thoughts that were making it hard to focus. He didn't honestly know why he was so afraid of the older boy, or why his blood was rushing so very quickly all of a sudden, and so he knew that he could not have been showing anything vital in his expression in those seconds.

It seemed like a very long eternity had passed before Riku finally took a deeper breath and pulled back, blinking rapidly. "You're right," he agreed belatedly, nodding once or twice. "We should get back before they start to worry about you."

That was the second lie of the night.

—

"Axel…" Riku said aloud, much later. Sora had already left to slink back to his own rooms with a very unwilling Roxas at his side, and so he spoke into their own dim room, licking his lips slightly. "And Leon, too, if you're awake." He received a few muffled grunts in reply, and so he took that as permission to continue as he took a small breath and asked, "If I said that I wanted Sora to come with us when we got off the boat in America… would you be all right with that? Would you mind?"

"What?" The surprised exclamation came, not from the boy that needed to provide permission for it, but instead from the boy that Riku saw sit up from his bunk on the other side of the small room, rubbing at his eyes. "You're going to bring Sora with you when you arrive on the other side?" Leon mumbled confusedly.

Axel's reply was far less shocked. "Alright," he muttered into his pillow, shifting into a more comfortable spot. "Tell him to bring Roxas, too. I want Roxas to come with us. You, too, Leon. We'll all stick together after this, alright?"

A smile bent Riku' lips in the darkness. "We could help you with your singing career, Leon. We could hand out flyers and shout on the streets for you. Or we could become your band, or something."

"The five of us becoming a band?" Leon murmured, sounding vaguely skeptical of the idea – but not entirely disapproving. "Don't you think that's a little unlikely?"

"We could be called the Stowaways," Axel suggested, and then he and Riku shared a short laugh at that.

"It would be kind of convenient," Riku supposed, "given that we're all going in the same direction now, and all. As far as I can tell it's a pretty straight route from here to America, so I doubt we're going to lose track of each other until we get there, at least. It could work."

Leon almost seemed to be considering it, before he jerked himself out of his daydream to peer blearily at the older boy once more, frowning slightly. "What about Sora, though?" he asked quietly, settling back down onto his side so that he didn't have to hold himself up. Riku only tipped his head to the side to meet that concerned gaze. "I can't imagine that his parents are going to let him get up and join the rest of us, if they're anything like he says they are – or you say they are, for that matter. How d'you think that's going to work?"

"With great skill and determination," Riku replied easily.

"Riku."

The other boy sighed. "I don't have the details down yet," he admitted, without a single shred of shame in his voice about that fact. "I just know that he doesn't want to be here anymore, I don't want him to be here anymore, and I do want him to be with us for more than a paltry boat trip where we can't even go anywhere."

"And Roxas," Axel emphasized, voice still muffled.

"And Roxas," Riku agreed.

"And Leon."

It took a moment to realize that the boy had volunteered his own name, and then Riku' face lit up in spite of the shadows that tried to conceal his features as he glanced over to meet Leon's slightly bemused gaze. "Really?" he said excitedly, inserting a bit more alertness into his tone than he had a moment ago. "You're really gonna stick around after this?"

"As long as I don't have to share a room with you again," Leon muttered amusedly, "sure. It's not like I've got anyone else waiting for me when I get there, so it'd be nice to know someone. That, and I fully expect you to make good on that offer to pass out my flyers, of course."

Riku merely shrugged. "That's fair."

They were all quiet for several minutes after that, laying in a comfortable silence that was filled with hopeful promises and daydreams of smoky nightclubs, soft booths and smiling faces. Riku exchanged one more smile with the boy sitting opposite him in the bunks, and then let his eyes closed as he tried to imagine all the different ways that they could sneak Sora off of the ship. Mostly, though, his mind was traveling back to the deck outside the dining hall, filling his ears with the sound of the small breaths that would not quite leave his senses altogether. He remembered the flickering pressure of the pulse that had beat against his neck, hard and fast, and the muted force of the fingertips that had touched his back, sliding down toward his hips…

A sudden flurry of movement from the mattress above his own broke Riku out his guilty reverie, and it took a moment for him to place the sound of Axel irritably rocking around in his bed.

"What?" he whispered, kicking his heel up into the bottom of the bunk.

"I still can't remember the other lyrics," Axel hissed back in a thick voice. "It's driving me nuts."

Leon's voice was nearly unconscious already as he mumbled, "Sorry."

Riku sat silent for a moment, chewing the corner of his lip in hesitation, but just as he was beginning to set aside the last remnants of his dignity and hope that none of them would remember the incident the next morning; Axel sighed in annoyance, murmured "Oh, I don't even care" and then rolled over once more and promptly fell back to sleep. Riku allowed himself only a small, private smile before he buried his face in the pillow beneath him and followed suit.


	7. Chapter 7

Sora wasn't prepared for how wrong it felt to wake up in his own bed without Riku there beside him. He couldn't put his finger on why, but he supposed a part of him had somehow hoped and expected that the quirky boy would find a way to be there in the morning, cuddled into his side like no one else would dare do to someone that had only just met.

He had regretted his decision to return to his own rooms the moment he had made it the previous night, but it had been fear of his own feelings that had pushed him into that choice. Knowing that his insides had tangled from only an embrace on a freezing balcony had not given him much faith in his own self-control, and he had foolishly believed that it would be of use to put some distance between them rather than indulging the want that was seeping too quickly into his blood. He had not readied himself for the possibility that he would only awake to a wave of longing that only intensified the feelings that so desperately wished to avoid.

Roxas was already wide awake on the other side of his bedroom door, and Sora's friend greeted him with the only sentence that could have lowered his mood any further in that moment. "Your dad came by a little while ago."

Sora felt the immediate urge to turn around and walk back the way he had come, burying himself into his bed covers once more, but instead he affected a polite expression that was useless on someone that knew him so well. "Really?" he replied in a saccharine voice, smiling too widely. "And what exactly did he have to say? It was about yesterday, I'd imagine?"

"Actually, no," Roxas said in a blank tone, and Sora's façade dissolved as real surprise flickered across his face. "He didn't say anything about yesterday – but that might have been because I didn't give him a chance to. As soon as he came in I started telling him that you had become very seasick in a matter of hours. I think I may have insulted the entire kitchen staff on this ship while I was at it, telling him that you had food poisoning on top of that, so if he comes in here again please do your best to look as if you've been vomiting into a cast-iron pan for the last twelve hours, alright?"

Roxas's voice never rose as he stated out that long explanation, but Sora's eyes slowly widened as those quickly spoken words left his friend's mouth. There was an unusual serenity to Roxas's expression, he noticed, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of the chirpy tone that persevered in his voice despite the dark circles that marred his eyes and the air of tiredness that clung to the slump of his body. They had stayed out as late as they could, of course, but while Roxas bore some sign of that late night; Sora had rarely seen him so cheerful.

"Sora?" he prompted, when the younger boy scrutinised him for too long without making any response. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes," Sora blurted sheepishly, "sorry. Thanks for doing that, I doubt he would have been too happy for the real explanation."

Roxas's voice was rueful. "No, not exactly. But don't thank me yet," he added grimly, "because he also said to tell you that you have got to go to the event tomorrow night. No exceptions, no excuses and no misbehaving while you're out there, either. You're not allowed to throw up anymore, apparently, and if you're anything but polite to Kairi while you take her out – well, he didn't specify to me, but I assume it's not going to be a simple slap on the wrist for it."

"No, not exactly," Sora echoed dully. "That's the ball, though, isn't it? The first formal welcome for the rest of the elite here?" Even he was surprised by the bitterness that soured his tone as he spoke, and he quickly tempered it with a small, sardonic smile that seemed to mollify his friend.

"Yes, and I really don't think that you're going to be able to get out of this one," Roxas told him in a sympathetic tone, wincing ever so slightly. "I'm sure that you can get out once it's finished to and see him—" Sora wasn't sure whether he should have been embarrassed that they did not need to establish which 'him' they were talking about. "—but I can't see any way that you're going to be able to give this a miss without your dad scouring every single inch of this ship to find you if you don't show up. You know he'll be back here at some point to talk to you."

"I know," Sora agreed instantly, "and I'm sorry that you had to deal with him this morning. But really, thank you for leaving me out of it; it would've been much worse for me if I'd been out here in your place."

Roxas met his gaze directly with a particularly emphatic, "I know."

A small sigh huffed its way out of Sora's lungs, and he lifted both hands to scrub them over his face wearily before he turned and strode over to the breakfast cart to pick over the meals there. "I will go," he acquiesced moodily, lifting a few trays experimentally to look at the various pastries and fruits beneath. "I think you'd get in more trouble than I would if I didn't, to be honest."

"I am the one that promised that I would tell you go attend," Roxas mused, with no small measure of regret in his tone. "There may have been talk of dragging you out there with your coattails if you didn't come willingly – I'm not a good liar, Sora," he exclaimed, upon seeing the other boy's bemused expression, "what would have me say to him? That it's highly doubtful that you were going to show up at all, or that the reason that you weren't there yesterday wasn't because you were throwing up over the side of the railing, but that you were actually having fun with someone that you like, for once!"

Sora paused, blinked, and then promptly burst out laughing. He wasn't sure what he found more amusing: the fact that Roxas looked so unbelievably flustered all of a sudden, or the extreme contrast between the hysterical tone and the latter half of that final sentence, which was actually very well-meaning. Despite that, Roxas still managed to crack a grin in response to his friend's sniggering, and he even joined in for a few laughs as his agitated posture relaxed and he lost the concern that was tightening his usually peaceful features. His smile was wry as he settled back down to lean against the edge of the sofa, content to watch Sora foraging up his breakfast.

They were quiet for only a minute or so before Sora spoke again. In hindsight, he supposed that he should have considered how decidedly unsubtle his words were as he stood there with a silly smile, but at the time it had felt like a perfectly normal, nonchalant thing to say, "I missed him last night."

Roxas did not hesitate in his reply. "Did you?"

Sora glanced over at the unrestrained smile that was ringing in his friend's voice, and Roxas did not have the decency to look ashamed of himself as he openly beamed, twitching both eyebrows up in question. He didn't make any other comment, however, and so Sora subsided to a suspicious glare as he cautiously returned to what he was doing.

"Yeah," he admitted quietly, and his ire was quick to fade as he smiled again. "I was just thinking that I could ask him if he wanted to stay here more often, since they've got it so cramped down there. He already said that he liked it better here, after all, so I don't think that he'd mind too much."

"He wouldn't be insulted if you asked him?"

Sora thought for only a moment, then, "No," he decided, surely. "He'd know what I meant by it."

There was an odd note playing in Roxas's voice when he spoke again, hesitating for only a few spare moments of deliberation before he asked, "You two really do get on, don't you? You really like him," he amended instantly, as if it were an important distinction for him to clarify. By his tone alone, Sora knew that the question wasn't something he was supposed to brush aside with a laugh or a joke, and so he merely shrugged one shoulder.

"Yes, I do," he said honestly.

"And he likes you?"

Sora's lips twisted. "Well, you'd have to ask him that, wouldn't you?"

He hid his face from view as he spoke, and so he didn't have a glimpse at his oldest friend's face as, without much of a hesitation at all, he brightly asked, "What do you think of Zayn?"

"I—"

Sora never got a chance to finish his sentence. He was interrupted by a loud rap on the door of their rooms, too startling to belong to any of the meek staff that would have softly slid their way into the rooms like uniformed ghosts. For just a moment, his heart seized with discomfort at the thought of facing his father again, when he had only just dodged him the last time. He truly had no desire to ever lay eyes on that man for the rest of his life, he realised, with a muted kind of sadness that he should feel that way, but any and all sorrow he felt in that moment was crushed by a familiar, amused voice announcing, "Room service!"

For some reason that he could not quite ascertain, Sora found himself snapping a glance over to his friend as he froze in place, as if asking for permission – and then did not even wait long enough to receive a response before he dropped the piece of toast that he'd been nibbling at to jog for the door, instead. His fingers were buzzing with energy as they closed around the doorhandle, whipping aside the offending barrier within seconds.

Riku was toying absently with his freshly donned braces on the other side of the door, and he visibly started as it was suddenly wrenched out of the way, his hands falling to his sides. Sora nearly felt vertigo in response to the speed with which his mood lifted in that moment. His lungs expanded with the sigh that expanded in his lungs and his heart thumped happily in his chest, seemingly speeding up with far more zeal than he thought was really necessary for those brief seconds.

But then he saw the answering smile that spread across Riku' lips, bringing a beaming grin to his face, and Sora didn't have the time to process what was happening before the older boy abruptly leant forward and seized Sora's head in his hands to plant a brief, forceful kiss on his mouth. He held that pressure for just a second, letting Sora feel the laughter that was trembling against his upper lip, and then dropped back to shoot an ecstatic grin over the younger boy's shoulder.

"Morning, Roxas," he greeted him cheerfully, and Sora was immensely grateful for the way that Riku barged into their rooms without permission, because it gave him a chance to rearrange his face before he closed the door and followed him in. He wasn't so sure that he succeeded, though, because he could feel the shock loosening his features into a gormless gape as his lips burned – and, more noticeably, he could hear the snort of laughter that buzzed in Roxas's throat as he met his friend's gleeful gaze.

"Zayn's going to be in the dining hall right about now," Riku commented calmly, as he swiftly moved to stand by the breakfast cart, carefully stacking Sora's abandoned toast with the tips of his fingers. Though he didn't look at Roxas in particular as he spoke, he was the one that answered.

"Did he tell you to say that?"

"No," Riku replied in an easy tone, but his lips twitched. "I just thought you might want the company, since I'm stealing your roommate again."

Sora tried not to let his grin show too much in response to that statement, and failed miserably.

Roxas only shrugged, and if he had been any less thrilled by Riku' presence Sora might have felt mildly insulted by his friend's easy acquiescence to the change in situation; after all, he had at least put up some sort of protest to Sora's absence the last time around. However, he seemed content as he leant there and grinned at them both. "I expected as much. Make sure that he's back by tomorrow night, at the very least, will you?" The paternal tone that he adopted for the warning was only half done in jest.

Riku' grin only widened.

In actuality, Riku was probably the only person that could have possibly gotten away with his blatant claiming of the spiky-haired boy for the day, whether it was from Roxas's perspective or Sora's, and yet neither had spoken a word of complaint as the older boy's hand had gripped the younger's to lead him outside. Sora had quickly found his mouth being stuffed with a piece of toast, nearly choking as he watched Riku calmly taking a bite of another, and it was with an unrepentant grin that the older boy had coaxed Sora into the morning sunshine for a strange, mobile version of breakfast.

Once Sora's mouth had been free, his earlier dejection led him to the explanation that he would most likely be too preoccupied tomorrow to be able to have any lasting free time with any of the boys. He felt even more disappointed at the news as he retold it to Riku, hearing his own voice dip and fall as he explained that he had to attend to the event in order to appease his father as well as making some sort of appearance to reassure his family that he was, in fact, still alive and well.

His complaint didn't have the effect he'd intended it to, however, as rather than griping with him; Riku' expression bloomed with a strange amount of glee.

"Wait," he said delightedly, pulling up short, "are you actually going to a real ball? As in… fancy frocks and music and dancing across the floor until your heels bleed?"

A startled laugh burst out of Sora's mouth at that description, and his grin was far more pleased than it should have been by that rather unromantic statement. "It's not usually how they would refer to it, but yes, I suppose that's the basics of it."

"And you're going to dance?"

"Yes," Sora replied, chuckling, but he felt something akin to nervousness at the sudden eagerness that was showing in the older boy's features. That anxiety became disappointment as Riku suddenly drew away from Sora's side, planting himself in the other boy's path without so much as a warning for what he was about to do or a cursory glance around them to make sure they weren't taking up any popular walkways. They weren't, Sora saw, and he was strangely relieved that they were alone all of a sudden – more so than his determined superficiality should have allowed him to become.

He even felt an impossible ache suffuse him as he watched the smile that slowly stretched itself across Riku' mouth in those seconds as he stared up into Sora's face, and so it was a moment before he processed the words that the older boy spoke a moment later. "Show me."

Sora's daze carried on for only a few seconds, letting him appreciate the tiny lines that fanned out around Riku' eyes when he smiled so widely and the sunlight that was gleaming on the enamel of his teeth, but then his happy reverie was doused with comprehension.

"What?" he managed, choking only slightly.

Riku did not seem to share his sudden panic. "Show me," he repeatedly, his grin becoming impossibly brighter. "It seems pretty damn doubtful that I'm going to be able to make it into the ballroom to see you doing it on the night, and I want to know what kind of dances that they taught you back at your school. Or, to be honest, I just want to know what you'd look like in a waltz. I won't laugh at you," he promised suddenly, but the wicked glint in his gaze belied the solemn oath that was spoken with his hand pressing to his heart. There was absolutely nothing kind about the enthusiasm that was practically shining in his face in those moments, but it still managed to wheedle and indecisive noise from Sora's mouth where there should have been an adamant denial.

"Right here, you mean?" he asked dubiously, glancing around at the relatively narrow section of planking that was offered to him. He waved a lethargic hand around at his makeshift stage. "It's not exactly what they usually advise for us to use in the lessons. Besides, I'm going to look like a fool spinning around with my arms in the air – who knows how many people can see us here."

"No one can see us from here," Riku said offhandedly, brushing the younger boy's concerns aside without a single falter in his beaming smile, but then he paused. His expression froze in place for the space of one single second, and then his grin twisted to the side a little as he shrugged and added, "But if you're that concerned about it, don't walk around with your arms in the air." He lifted his own hands up in the air as he spoke, still shrugging; quite obviously offering himself up for the demonstration in a gesture so profoundly simple that he could almost conceal the very real complications that it posed.

Sora bit his lip in what he wasn't entirely sure was hesitancy. Something quivered in his belly with nerves, but he was also fighting a smile as he pointedly looked the older boy up and down in a scrutinising way. He let doubt weigh in his voice as he returned, "You?"

Though he did his best to look offended, Riku still looked on the edge of laughter as he drew back, mouth falling open in mock-outrage. "Fine," he exclaimed, sniffing, "go enjoy dancing with yourself, instead." A real snort of laughter broke his façade, then, and there was a low note to that chuckle as he lifted a hand to his mouth, momentarily smothering the surprisingly lewd grin that was curling his mouth. "You'll look like less of an idiot with me," he said quickly, still smothering his laughter slightly. "You have to agree with that much, at least, and I'm hardly going to step on your feet or anything.

"Come on," he urged, seeing the faltering in Sora's steadfast expression, and his grin flashed back in full force as he leant forward to meet the younger boy's gaze directly. "I want to see what they're teaching you back at that school. Unless you're just that bad."

It was insultingly obvious that he was trying to play on Sora's pride to convince him

"So I just put my hand here?" Riku asked in an odd, teasing voice. His expression was utterly sweet and curious as he blinked up into Sora's face, just barely resting his hand atop the younger boy's shoulder as he spoke, lifting both eyebrows. He looked almost childlike with that mask in place, but for the tiny smirk that threatened to twist his mouth with a familiar, filthy grin. "Right here?"

Sora's lips twitched. "Yes," he answered, calmly, and shouldered up into that feather-light grip more firmly so that Riku was forced to curl his hand around the flesh offered to him. "Higher up a bit – That's good. And now you, um…" Eton College was very focussed on confidence and presentation with its students; Sora hadn't said 'um' in years, at least, and that was the second time in an hour of being in Riku' presence. "… you take my hand, and it's basically just a square, to be honest."

Riku just blinked at him.

Sora's eyes flickered across the older boy's features once, searching for some sign of reticence, but he found only that same teasing glint that brightened his entire face. Then, he reached down to slide his fingers beneath Riku'; balancing them very lightly on the tips of his own so that he only cradled the other boy's hand as he brought up into position. He only meant to keep the most professional of touches between them for his own sake, but Riku' hand tightened around Sora's for one moment before he released it again, and suddenly the entire demonstration was less mocking than it had been a second ago.

"And then you basically just move around from there," he concluded, willing his body to react to the proximity of the other boy as they remained in that stance.

"What, like stepping around like this…?" Riku asked blankly, shifting his feet ever so slightly. His arms slid out of the posture that they should have held as he dropped his gaze to his own shoes for several seconds, gauging the movement that he had in their limited space, and he completely managed to ruin the position that Sora had given him in a series of tiny, inconvenient movements that were more endearing than anything the younger boy had ever seen.

"You're doing it wrong," Sora chuckled, biting his lip to keep his smile from widening too much as he lifted a hand to readjust Riku' grip on his shoulder. His fingers curled around the older boy's for a brief moment, slipping them higher than they were before so that he had a better hold, before Sora edged closer and pulled their bodies into a different position. His hand fluttered nervously around Riku' shoulder, his eyes dropping down to the ground between their chests, and it took a moment before he was able to settle his fingers again.

His voice was just a low hum. "And there are all sorts of different songs that they play, so it's a bit of a guess about which partner that you get…"

"Alright," Riku murmured in response, smiling.

Sora's lips curled upward, even as he kept his gaze on the floor for a few more seconds, and when he dared to lift it again he found that those blue eyes were already staring into his face. Riku' smile was quiet and somehow private, like he was seeing something there that Sora knew nothing about, and it did not falter in the slightest when Sora looked into it. Not one person had ever looked at Sora like that in his entire life; not even one had stared so long into his eyes for any reason, and none approached the same gentle warmth that swam back and forth in Riku' gaze then.

"And then…" Sora whispered, but he never really finished his sentence as it trailed away into nothingness. Wordlessly, he slid his hand beneath Riku' elbow to shift the older boy's arm into a new placement around his neck, and he readjusted their hands again into a different grip. He tentatively placed his hand very lightly on Riku' waist, his fingers barely pressing into the other boy's side, and he was heartened by the fact that Riku did not immediately push him away. Sora dared to slip his arm around his waist completely, then; his fingertips grazing the small of Riku' back as he squeezed the other boy's hand a little, and Riku' smile only grew.

Sora's heart felt heavy and strangely sore in his chest as he inhaled slowly, trying not to show just how his pulse had begun to hammer in his veins. His fingertips toyed with the older boy's loose shirt, feeling each individual strand of the fabric that slid beneath his touch, and it wasn't long before Sora realised that he was running his fingers very lightly up and down the base of Riku' spine as they stood there. He could just barely feel the ridges of his back through that material, and he traced that line with tiny strokes of his hand almost without even thinking about it. His fingertips were trembling only very slightly, but that only worsened as he slowly eased his palm flat against the side of Riku' back, smoothing his hand over his back in one long caress that slid from the top of his ribcage to his hip.

Instantly, his breath hitched as he realised what he was doing and he moved to pull away – but Riku stopped him with a look. It held none of the shaky fear that was squirming in Sora's belly; instead, he was calm. Though his lips were just parted in shallow breath, his eyes were smiling. They flicked down to where Sora's fingers were hovering at his hipbone before meeting the younger boy's again, and even without saying a word that bright blue gaze quite clearly granted Sora the permission he had not yet asked for.

It took a moment, but Sora slowly let his fingers curl back around Riku' waist so that he could feel the taut line of muscle that made up the older boy's torso. It took so very little effort for him to pull Riku' body closer to his own, affecting what could have been an innocent dance coupling in anyone else's eyes, but it had an overwhelming effect on him as Riku willingly stepped forward in response to that coaxing movement.

However, it didn't quite have the outcome that Sora had been hoping for.

He wasn't sure who exactly tripped over whose feet, but it took only seconds for their lurching bodies to abruptly break through the heated feeling that had collected around their entwined bodies. Sora had a moment of feeling Riku' chest brush against his own, the other boy's face startling close and the scent of his skin swirling within Sora's senses, and then he had let out a rather undignified cry as they were suddenly staggering back toward the edge of the railing, hesitancy lost as he clung to Riku' body to keep them both from falling.

"Fuck!" Riku swore loudly, as they rocked over toward the rope barrier that separated them from the edge of the deck, but there was a laugh in his voice as he cussed. With more alacrity than Sora had given him credit for until that moment, the older boy abruptly pivoted with the momentum of their ungainly fall and slipped an arm around Sora's neck to drag him to the side, out of the way of the hardened ropes that might not have been enough to withstand their combined weight. They still stumbled, but they had enough time to straighten up before they were sent flinging off of the side of the boat.

Riku was already cackling in Sora's ear before they had regained their footing, his laughter free and open despite their near-disaster, and he kept that hold on his shoulders as he turned his face into the younger boy's neck. Sora couldn't help but join him as adrenaline buzzed in his veins, even though his heart had been set to a very different rhythm from the sight of the waters stretching out over that ledge.

"Oh god," Riku snickered, pulling back only enough to glance over his shoulder at the edge of the deck. "We could have died right then, you know." Even as he spoke the words, he broke down in another fit of giggles.

"We could have died because you're a fucking awful dancer," Sora agreed fervently, still mildly stunned.

Instantly, Riku jerked back to stare into the younger boy's face with in disbelief, truly shocked by that statement, but it took only one more look into those wide green eyes to send him into another fit of hysteria, and so Sora only wrapped his arms around Riku' waist to keep them both standing again as they fought against the grins tugging at their cheeks.

—

That day went far too quickly for Sora's liking, seemingly defying all laws of nature so that only a heartbeat passed in the time that it took between the moment he joined Riku' side and the moment he glanced up to find that night had descended without warning. He had truly startled when he realised that he was struggling to see the other boy's face in the dim lighting, because his mind had been too preoccupied to notice the darkening skies while he had been so diverted by the boy at his side.

In all honesty, it should have been a dull afternoon.

Sora should have been put off his interest in the older boy, because it seemed impossible that he could be falling ever more into his fascination when they were trapped on a boat that limited their activities to endless laps of the decking that they had already travelled numerous times. With anyone else, he would have found some way to excuse himself from that, and in the midst of laughing at another story of Riku' sisters Sora found himself wondering how the other boy transformed the ordinary into such wonderful, shining nonsensical fun. He wondered how doing nothing with Riku felt better than everything else that his rich, powerful world had to offer him, and he wondered why, when the ocean was sparkling with the sunlight shining down upon their heads, he found himself staring too avidly at the blue eyes that crinkled whenever they were tipped up toward the sky.

He was so mindlessly happy that it was almost a nagging concern, like he was waiting for the inevitable downfall to that relaxation, but it seemed to be brushed aside whenever Riku' hand bumped his own or his eyes caught at Sora's. They talked about Sora's childhood and his times back at school, but they also talked about ocean liner construction and shooting stars and the invention of the radio and all other manner of things that Sora had not known he'd wanted to talk about until the moment that he heard the passionate words falling from his own mouth. And Riku had delighted in his interest, encouraging it until Sora was talking more in that one tour of the liner than he had done for weeks before arriving on the ship – to the point where his mouth began to dry, and his voice deepened and roughened further than it already had.

He'd barely even stopped babbling by the time that they found themselves gravitating toward the kitchen in search of some dinner, but whenever he recalled his sense of politeness and equality and stopped to let Riku contribute, the other boy demanded that he continue with a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"I like listening to you talk," had been his only explanation, spoken with a calm shrug, and that cheeky smile was not quite enough to conceal the real happiness hidden behind it. Ironically, there was such sincerity in his encouragement that it had made Sora's voice falter for the first time, and it taken several long seconds for him to remember just what he'd been talking about before he could continue; chattering on and on until his voice rubbed raw and his cheeks were aching from smiling.

It was a rude awakening to find that the decks were emptying out of passengers as the moon climbed higher and Sora was struck with the rather violent realisation that he could not recall when he'd last thought of the time. He had been almost compulsive at some points in his life, measuring out just how many minutes left in class and how many hours he had left in his father's superficial tutelage in all things despicable, and yet an entire day had passed him by without him noticing.

All too soon, they were strolling through the familiar corridors that took Sora back to his gilded cell, ready to wait for the morrow that would bring him hell in the form of twinkling fairy lights and vacuous gazes encircled with too much make up.

The words were sticking on the edge of his tongue, waiting to be blurted out in a fit of earnest awkwardness, but Sora found that it was far more difficult to say than he might have anticipated. Knowing that he wanted Riku to stay with him didn't exactly make it easier for him to actually stand there and vocalise the desire for him to invite another boy into his bed for the night, when he couldn't honestly promise that it was all in fun and innocence. If it had been anyone else, he could have made a quip and brushed it aside, but there was no way to temper the suggestion with any sort of light-hearted comment when the only truth he could offer was that he didn't want Riku to leave again, for any length of time.

Riku was still standing there, and Sora almost let himself believe that the older boy was waiting for Sora to ask him to stay again, as he had the first night. They weren't drunk this time, but there was something in the patient, expectant look on his face that was almost asking Sora for the offer that he so wanted to give.

Sora wanted to explain that he simply wanted more of Riku' company than a day trip could provide, to say something meaningful about how grateful he was to have him there, but instead what came dribbling from his mouth was a stammered, "I think you should probably stay here again tonight."

Surprise lightened the other boy's expression, possibly from the blunt phrasing, but he was followed quickly by amusement that danced in his bright gaze. He looked as if he were about to come back with a teasing retort to point out how incredibly pathetic that attempt at nonchalance had been, but even as Sora could see the mock rising to colour Riku' lips – the older boy visibly stopped himself. His lips folded together as he held his tongue, and in place of the usual cheeky reply came a vaguely approving jerk of his head.

"I think you're right," he agreed, with an exaggerated frown. "I'm not sure that I'd be forgiven if I traipsed my way back into the rooms and woke Zayn and Leon up now. They're very early sleepers, you know."

Both boys had still been buzzing in their chairs when Sora and Riku had left them, and they had given no sign that they were even planning to head back to their rooms when the two boys had left them in the dining hall with Roxas and lots more to entertain themselves.

Sora nodded several times. "Definitely. And I don't want you getting caught in the hallways, or anything, in case they mistake you for a thief trying to ransack their rooms in the middle of the night…"

"No, we wouldn't want that."

Sora had never felt quite so unconcerned at his lack of shame than he did right then, fighting the smile that was threatening to overwhelm Riku' face, as well. He knew that it was a front, as did the older boy, and yet somehow the fact that they were both willing to spout such utter nonsense for the sake of justifying staying together was enough to let his discomfort fade as he turned and playfully dragged the older boy through the door before he could escape again.

There was a strange giddiness to the boys' behaviour as they both laughed their way through the rooms, as if they were simply away on holiday together with childish happiness rather than anything else, and Sora actually found himself repressing another bout of silly laughter as he let himself fall back onto his bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress. It took only a moment for Riku to join him, and he glanced up at the new weight to see that Riku had flopped down beside him, head canted to the side to meet his gaze.

"So, when we leave in America," Sora commented absently, rubbing at his chin, "do you have any idea about where we're going to go?"

The joy that flared in Riku' eyes was muted, but it was there nonetheless, shining in his eyes as he affected a pensive expression and reached up to scratch at his temple. "Hmm…" he hummed, and there was a laugh thrumming in his voice. "I think Leon already has some connections there, so we could always crash one of theirs until we find somewhere to live. I feel obliged to warn to tell you now that you'd be advertising for Leon on a regular basis and possibly providing some backing vocals during his singing career. We decided this already, sorry."

"Sounds fair," Sora shrugged, with a lopsided smile. "As long as you don't have to dance at all, I'm happy to join in."

Riku only laughed at that, a rich, throaty sound, and then fell silent with nothing more than that same bubbly happiness gleaming in every inch of the face that hovered across from Sora's own. The younger boy gladly returned that shining gaze, smiling in return, and he continued staring until that grin slid from his lips and he felt a very sharp jolt hit him in the stomach. It jarred him from the moment, reminding him that he was supposed to be cautioning himself against such behaviour, and so he smothered an embarrassingly staged yawn into the back of his hand before swinging his legs over the edge of the mattress.

"I really hope you're not looking for an early morning tomorrow," Riku said, as Sora moved over to extinguish the lamps littered around the room. There was still a very faint glow from the window sitting high on the wall, letting the moonlight in, and from the lights in the hallway, but he didn't feel any compunction in leaving those as he turned back with a grin.

"I'm not sure how I gave you that impression," Sora began to say, smirking all the way, but then he actually shuffled to a stop as his feet stumbled along with his words. With what seemed like deliberate cruelty, he had turned back just in time to see Riku tugging his shirt over his head, exposing the tanned torso beneath in a way that Sora wished he could forget from the last time this had happened. A helpless noise buzzed in his throat, and he could only pray that the material currently sitting around the older boy's shoulders would muffle his hearing enough for that choke to go unnoticed.

Fortunately, for all intents and purposes, it seemed to. In any case, Riku made no mention of it as he carelessly tossed his shirt onto the nearby nightstand, barely bothering to fold it, and then slipped into his side of the bed with a brief smile to Sora over the edge of the coverlet.

Oddly enough, though he moved to emulate the older boy's example, Sora found that he had trouble maintaining the same casual manner as he stripped down to his undershirt and slipped in beside Riku. The other boy murmured a quiet 'good night', before he rolled onto his side, burrowing into the pillow, and seemed to drop off to sleep almost immediately.

For the life of him, Sora did not know what possessed him in the time that followed.

At first he found no problem with lying still and focussing on his breathing, trying to ignore the quivering that had yet to abate behind his sternum, and while it was still mildly distracting to feel the warmth of the body next to his and to hear those quiet, soothing breaths from Riku' lips, he could still distance himself to the point where he could pretend it wasn't happening. He wasn't feeling the urge to shift closer or to wake Riku up again so that he might be able to dispel the muzzy yearnings that were beginning to swell inside him, and he certainly wasn't fighting anything untoward as he lay there.

Riku was his friend, his very close friend that had somehow taken an incredible liking to him, and that was as far as he went. Sora told himself that several times as he stared at the blurry ceiling above his head, listening to the far-off sounds of the waves splashing against the side of the boat and the not-so-distant sounds of Riku sighing in his sleep.

He was still instilling that lie into himself, very sternly, when the older boy suddenly gave a small, unconscious protest of discomfort in his sleep and slipped his arm out of the covers, dislodging the sheet that had transformed him into nothing more than a misshapen bump beneath the blankets to Sora's right. The younger boy glanced over whether he wanted to or not, flicking a guilty gaze out of instinct, and for just a second Sora felt sure that the air in the room doubled its weight as he caught sight of the boy lying beside him, his back laid bare now that the covers had been pushed aside. The curve of Riku' sleeping body gave the ridges in his back a new prominence as he curled inward, exposing the lines of his muscle and bone that made up the shapes playing in his back.

Had he been in his right mind, Sora would have turned to the other side and simply stared at the wall as he willed himself into unconsciousness. It seemed like the only intelligent thing to do in the situation, given that any other course of action was obviously and irrevocably idiotic to the point where his mind screamed at him as he continued to watch the dim grey light falling upon Riku' body. He had no right to be staring, after all, and it was unforgivable to do that to someone he so very admired.

It was stare and wonder if his skin was truly as smooth as it looked beneath that soft illumination; wrong, inconsiderate, degrading, perverse, rude – and impossible to resist.

Sora's mind was dazed with the state of near-sleep that was all he had managed to reach, and the detached quality of that awareness somehow led him to believe that it was harmless. He was barely in control of the rationale that came to the conclusion that he was doing nothing wrong at all, and if he had only taken the time to consider it with more than the hazy longing swimming inside his blood, he would have realised his colossal mistake in letting that desire outweigh everything else.

Slowly, Sora watched as his fingertips just brushed against the skin of Riku' back, sliding across the shadowy lines of muscle there. He had to swallow against the nervousness that tightened in his throat as he did so and his lips parted with a shaky sigh that left him holding his breath in fear of making any noise that would wake the other boy. He traced the small scar over his hipbone with careful reverence, mindlessly walking his fingers over each new shape that made up Riku' body, and he momentarily forgot his anxiety as he watched the shadows that his hand was making against that smooth skin; they were oddly hypnotising in the half-light, and Sora found that he liked the way that their skin contrasted ever so slightly.

On the other side of the bed, where Sora couldn't see, Riku' eyes slowly opened.

Sora trailed just the tip of his index finger over the beginnings of Riku' ribcage next, following the minute ridges that made up the stretch of his side. His skin tingled as he traced the outline of the other boy's shoulder blades, drew a line down his spine, and his lips bent in a soft smile as he let his thumb hover above the tiny indents in the small of Riku' back. He was not quite brave enough to press down as he so wanted to in that moment, but he enjoyed the look of it anyway.

His hands had never looked as good as they did while they were touching Riku' skin.

The younger boy became so lost in the sensation of those small caresses that he managed to forget his initial caution; pressing his entire palm flat to Riku' back as he dragged his hand up and down the perfect line of flesh offered to him. He could feel the rise and fall of the other boy's ribcage as he breathed, yet he did not notice how those expansions began to change as the seconds passed, quickening and shortening. Sora was so caught up that he did not even notice when Riku' neck arched forward just a little, giving him better access, or when his 'sleeping' body leaned back just a tiny bit into the hands that worshipped it so carefully.

But then Riku turned.

His movements were slow, letting terror sink its teeth into the pit of Sora's stomach as he shifted to lie on his back so that his open, very awake eyes stared into Sora's. He didn't say a word about what had happened only seconds ago or try to shuffle out of the close proximity that his turn had brought them into; he only lay there beneath Sora's frightened expression and blinked his long eyelashes with a stunning amount of calm. Sora waited for the revulsion to show on the older boy's face, as all kinds of old teachings had led him to expect – though he could have not predicted that they would ever apply to him, before Riku came into his life – but it never appeared. He didn't demand an explanation with a sneer curling his lips – or worse, a cruel laugh bubbling up to his mouth as he realised what Sora had been doing and feeling. He was just still, quiet.

It was so silent that Sora nearly startled when Riku' hand rose from his side, and the older boy instantly paused where his fingers were curling in mid-air, nowhere near Sora's skin. Their gazes had yet to break, but Sora was acutely aware of those fingertips hovering just a few spare inches away. Riku' eyes flickered over Sora's expression once, taking in the parted lips and the muted anguish, and then he slowly brought his hand forward to brush the younger boy's hair away from his forehead, out of his eyes. His fingertips grazed Sora's brow on the way, and he left his hand hovering near the younger boy's jaw as he toyed with the fine strands of those curls.

So gently that Sora could feel it, Riku' thumb stroked along his cheek. "Sora…" he breathed, quieter than a whisper, "… you don't have to stop." His voice was almost imperceptibly soft. "I don't mind."

As it had been earlier, Riku' expression was completely open and accepting as he offered himself up in the most basic way possible, yet it was nowhere near as simple for Sora to openly reach out again as he had the last time. Riku' hand was still touching his cheek and his own was hovering somewhere atop the older boy's chest where it had fallen without permission, and it was all he could do to maintain just one clear thought in his mind as he stared down into that lovely face: that Riku wasn't leaving.

It was the only thing he could retain in his spinning mind, as other concerns about the rest of the world faded to nothing more than an insignificant memory in the face of what he felt in that moment. They were abruptly unimportant, because he knew that none of the fear or anguish that he had experienced in his life measured up to the wild hope that was swelling within his chest, pushing aside everything else.

Then, Riku' lips flicked out to wet his lips as a strangely heady look coloured his expression. It tightened in Sora's veins with a raw feeling that was close to pain, and it only worsened when Riku shifted his hands slightly to run his fingers along the line of Sora's cheekbones, trailing his fingers into the younger boy's hair and down to the edge of his collarbone before he pulled his hand away from his skin. He adjusted just one more curl, almost affectionately, and then let himself lie flat beneath Sora's heavy gaze as the other boy leaned over him, just far enough to let him hover above Riku' body without touching him.

Neither of them spoke for several long minutes, but Sora couldn't find it in himself to be disappointed by that fact and nor did he come across any desire whatsoever to break the wonderful silence that had settled around them. He provided no explanation for himself as he touched Riku' chest just once, letting his fingertip travel straight down the centre of his torso from the hollow of his throat all the way down to the thin trail of hair beneath his navel, and the older boy never asked for any reason behind it. He quivered and sighed beneath the gloriously simple touch, but he never demanded anything more than Sora had to give him. He merely remained quiet, staring into the beautiful face above his and watching the intense fascination playing across those features.

When Sora's curiosity gave way to the dizziness he could not control, he finally expelled the last few remnants of the breath that he had kept pent in his lungs and turned to sink back down into his side, arm tucked beneath his head. Riku turned onto his side, too, but he twisted toward Sora rather than away from him this time, and his expression was nearly unreadable as he tilted his head toward the younger boy's.

They were lying so close together that their foreheads were nearly touching, and Sora felt Riku' breath brush his lips as he murmured, "Good night, Sora."

Sora smiled his reply, not trusting his voice as he felt his throat constricting with the unbearable feeling of the other boy's body curling into his own. Their knees were touching, and Riku was so close to turning his head into Sora's neck that the younger boy's skin began to burn.

Nevertheless, he closed his eyes just as Riku did and he tried to focus on his own breathing rather than the other boy's so that he might be able to sleep, and for a time they were still.

Then, "Riku," he murmured aloud, keeping his eyes closed, and he felt the other boy's body shift against his own in response. He stayed silent for a moment longer, mulling over the words that were so desperately struggling to be free from his aching chest. He wished he wasn't so afraid open his eyes as he spoke again, confessing what he had already realised too quickly, mere hours after meeting the person that now meant so much to him, but he saw only the insides of his own eyelids as he whispered, "I'm glad that you're here." He took a slow breath before he continued, "Not only tonight, either, I just… I don't think I like being without you anymore."

Silence echoed after his words. Sora could feel himself swaying with the movements of the ship as he listened to the quiet that echoed after his words, deep and calm, and he was almost dizzied by the strange relief that he felt upon being able to say that without his entire world crumbling around him. Riku was still there, warm and perfect beneath Sora's touch, and while he could not see it; he could feel the other boy's eyes on his face again.

And then he heard it: a small sigh in the darkness; breathless, soft and frayed at the edges like Riku could barely manage that low exhalation. It was quiet yet deafening all at once, and Sora was glad that his eyes were closed so that he could revel in that one noise as it rang in his ears without distraction.

Riku' hands touched his face once more, a moment later, but they did not linger at his cheeks or eyelashes as they had earlier – instead, Sora shivered as he felt those strong fingers gliding over the side of his bare neck, threading through his hair and sliding across his scalp in one slow movement that left Sora's fingertips trembling as he swallowed, tightly. His eyes squeezed shut of their own volition, and he felt the strangest fear that the illusion would be broken if he opened them again; he feared that he was imagining it, and he sought to preserve the glorious dream as long as possible.

And so his eyes were still closed, eyelashes brushing his cheeks, when he felt Riku' soft lips touch his throat.


	8. Chapter 8

There was something brushing against Sora's wrist.

That was his very first hint of sensory awareness as his mind slowly dragged itself back out of its unconscious haze, warm and content with something that had very little to do with how comfortable he was lying there. He inhaled deeply first, and he noticed that the feathery feeling on his skin paused for only a moment before it resumed again, brushing back and forth across his skin.

"I should take you sunbathing once we get to America."

The softly-spoken comment was tinged with gentle amusement, emanating somewhere close beside Sora's ear, and it brought a lazy smile to the younger boy's lips before he even opened his eyes to meet the shining gaze that was hovering above his. Riku' hair was tousled more than usual, the strands unevenly shoved over his forehead, but his smile was smooth as it tugged the corners of his lips up. His eyes smiled, too, lighting up his face so that Sora nearly had to close his eyes a moment after he'd opened them to deal with the shock of seeing that face so early in the morning.

Even so, his grin turned silly as he foolishly summoned the first words that came to mind and mumbled, "I want to wake up next to you more often." The second that he spoke, alarm sped through his veins and quickened his heartbeat into alertness as he risked a quick glance at the other boy's face, gauging his reaction.

Riku' smile didn't change at all. He only shrugged. "I can live with that," he replied calmly, eyes twinkling in the morning light, and as his teeth momentarily pressed into his bottom lip, turning them white for just a split second, Sora was suddenly transported back into a memory of the night before. He remembered how those lips had closed against the skin of his neck, below his ear, and he could still perfectly recall how he noticed that they were parted ever so slightly. He remembered how Riku had hovered there for a long moment, his lips barely brushing against Sora's skin as he breathed, and how he had wondered, for just a moment, if the older boy was going to continue with anything more than that.

His blood had felt hot and thick as it moved through his veins, beating beneath the pressure that was held against his pulsing throat, and for the first time he had not felt afraid at the thought that Riku would be able to feel it. Almost, he'd hoped that the other boy would notice how hard his heart was thumping; he wanted Riku to feel how much that simple kiss affected him, because even if he hadn't the courage to say it out loud, he wanted the other boy to know just how Sora responded to him. He wanted to convey without words how his skin shivered with the warmth exuding from Riku' body, how the entire world had tipped beneath him because he was leaning over him, legs brushing together and hands touching where Riku was propped up on his elbow.

Sora still remembered that Riku' lips had moved. It was such a small distinction – a tiny gesture, in all actuality, and he knew that if he'd tried to vocalise how much he treasured it; the magic would vanish. His own mumbled attempts at any sort of definition would have ruined the entire night, yet somehow he felt that there was some important in the way that he had felt Riku' mouth shift against the column of his throat, lips parting so that the younger boy could feel the wisps of his breath brushing his sensitive skin.

Though he had no way of detailing how, there had been something in the way that Riku' fingers had just flicked out to rest against Sora's where they were splayed atop the sheets; how his sigh had been slightly unsteady, his position such that his cheek touched Sora's before he withdrew again, leaning back into his place beside the younger boy and lying back down.

And that whispering feeling was there now, too, lingering in the corners of Riku' long eyelashes as he gazed at the younger boy so that even though Sora had none of the sophistication to pin it down to any one feeling, he knew – without a doubt – that something was different. Something had changed between them, unspoken or otherwise, and now he could no longer reach for any sort of casual remark that might have distanced him from the feeling that was swarming his senses once more, overwhelming him while he was left defenceless against it.

He could only lay there and stare into the other boy's eyes for far longer than he should have, noting in the back of his mind that Riku did not attempt to break that gaze. He only looked right back, eyes flickering back and forth between Sora's as a soft smile built in his features. It stretched on to the point where Sora's chest began to ache, but for the life of him he could not bear to rip his eyes away while Riku was looking at him like that, like he could feel the same indefinable feeling stirring inside him the longer that he refused to forcibly suppress it as he should have.

Then, without warning, a very deep breath sighed its way out of Riku' lungs, as if the older boy had been holding it the entire time. The exhalation was slightly shaky, Sora noticed with a start, and the older boy shook his head several times as he visibly tried to control his breathing once more. "God, Sora," he muttered under his breath, and his steady voice was so much deeper than usual that it made the younger boy's heart leap into his throat in response. "You know, you're actually…"

Sora tried to swallow, but his voice was too rough and his eyes too wide as he asked, "Actually what?"

The older boy continued to stare at him for a long time, more silent than he had been in the entire span of their time together so far, but his thumb slowly begun to stroke back and forth along Sora's pulse point as he had done to wake him earlier. His hand was barely balancing on the younger boy's palm to keep that position, and without thinking about it; Sora shifted his hand so that his fingers curled upward to brush Riku' wrist in return, nearly closing around his arm to hold him there.

"Actually what?" he prompted again, when Riku did not speak at all, and those words finally jarred the older boy into speech – but not quite the one that Sora had been expecting.

With another quiet sigh, Riku shifted back to lean on his elbow again, his hand braced against his temple so that his other could remain within Sora's light grasp. Neither made any comment about that gentle contact, or the way that Sora's fingertips were just barely caressing Riku' skin without his permission. "You know, back when I was a kid," Riku began in a low voice, nearly whispering despite the fact that Sora was the only one within earshot, "my mum used to tell us all this story whenever we were afraid of something, about the one time that she went out with her dad. He was a fishermen, you see," he explained softly, "and apparently he'd go out on this trips that could take weeks and months before he ever made it back home, and she'd miss him like crazy."

His voice was that of a storyteller, now, and Sora's smile widened to dazzling proportions.

"And so she'd beg him to take her along, over and over, so that she could be with him while he was out there and make sure that he was okay, 'cause she'd get so scared that he was never coming back. He always said he'd be fine, but then there'd be stories of people drowning, freezing to death, getting thrown off the boat – and so she wouldn't sleep whenever he was gone for even an hour longer than she thought he would. And one day, he turned to her and said that it was okay; that she could come with him, so long as she stayed close and didn't touch any of the lines or the hooks and that.

"So, of course, that was the one time that he ever got caught in a storm," Riku said conversationally, and Sora laughed once, grinning at the light tone of the other boy's voice. "It wasn't deadly – obviously – but she always said that she could just remember how she thought that the boat was going to tip over, and so she was trying to tie herself to the rigging so that she would fall off, or anything. And it was just this massive thunderstorm, lightning flashing all around the boat and rain pouring over the deck and turning it to ice everywhere, and she used to tell us that she could remember staring up into the sky and thinking that she was going to die, she was that terrified – that it made her stomach turn itself inside out, that she thought she was going to scream from it all.

"But," he murmured suddenly, head tilting and voice becoming even softer, "whenever we were that scared, she used to turn and tell us to look again at whatever we were frightened of."

"Why?" Sora asked, just as quietly.

Riku' eyes flitted between Sora's again, and they did not waver as he spoke again. "Because as scary as it seemed… it was also the most beautiful thing that she'd ever seen."

Sora's voice stuck in his throat.

It was only through plain determination that he managed not to let the emotions show in his expression in that moment, because with those words he felt such a crushing wave of resignation that he felt certain it would have had him collapsing into a heap in the covers. In part, he knew that it was only a ridiculous fancy that those words could pertain to him in any way or that there was a purpose in the telling of it – but at the same time, Riku was looking so closely into his face that it was impossible not to read the truth that he offered in those startlingly blue eyes and the barest hint of bashfulness in the very corner of his demure smile, and Sora felt so defeated because if someone like that could look at him like that, if he could speak words such as those with no trace of irony or insincerity anywhere on his person, then everything that Sora had ever thought about himself had just been swept out from beneath him.

If someone like Riku could really exist in his life, no matter the circumstances in which he came to be there, then Sora was prepared to just give up everything because he had finally come to the realisation that he was so hopelessly lost in feeling for that one person that he had absolutely no hope of going back to how he had been before.

"Why are you telling me this, Lou?" he asked in a low voice, his expression arching without his permission as he caught the older boy's gaze and held it fast.

Riku only looked up in pure innocence for one moment, hesitating for the briefest of seconds before he spoke, but it was enough time for Sora to see the look that sparked in his face. It vanished almost instantly, but it had been there; something close to despair and rapture at the same time, it was that helplessness that Sora recognised as his chest gave a particularly painful twinge, almost in agreement.

And then he shrugged again, using his free shoulder to do so while his fingers closed around Sora's wrist and jogged it once. "No reason," he replied casually, blinking several times, "I just thought that it'd be a good conversation starter, that's all."

Sora's heart was beating too quickly, the blood moving slowly around his eyes, but he felt strangely brazen in that moment; emboldened by the certainty that Riku' hesitation had instilled in him. He had rarely felt so bold as he did then, as he turned his fingers to slide them between the older boy's, lifting them off of the mattress as he murmured, "Liar."

"No," Riku protested instantly, swiftly inhaling as his lips twitched with the threat of a grin, "I just assumed you'd be able to identify with that story, because you've obviously never seen the sun in your life. Really, did they never let you out of your dorms back in school?" he asked mournfully, pointedly running his eyes over the skin of Sora's arms – which, admittedly, was somewhat lighter than the comparatively dark tan that layered over Riku'. It was not helped in the slightest that their fingers had mysteriously entwined, letting him witness the contrast with even more ease than before.

Sora's mouth twisted in another grin, making his cheeks ache sweetly, but he did not reply.

"I'm starting to wonder whether they kept you in cages and forced you to come out for formal occasions and exams," Riku continued easily, avoiding meeting the gaze that was so pinned to his face as he looked at Sora's body, instead, ostensibly scrutinising the milky white skin that stretched out over his frame. "It would make a lot of things make sense about you, to be honest."

"Riku," Sora muttered wryly, trying to catch the older boy's attention.

"It's alright," he replied, affecting an earnest expression, "you can tell me what they did to you there. This is a safe space for you to share your secrets." He used their knotted fingers to gesture around the room, deliberately flopping Sora's arm about in the process. "Did they even feed you over there?"

Sora's lips pursed in his efforts to keep from smiling, but he only twitched his eyebrows up expectantly.

Riku sighed heavily, leaning forward so that their faces were hovering very close together, and Sora actually made the mistake of thinking that the older boy might actually have returned to seriousness again before he whispered, "Did they make you use parasols, Sora?"

With that, a startled noise whined in the younger boy's throat and his mouth fell open as Riku jerked back again, stretching his arm far out so that he could leave their hands linked as he rocked back, laughing delightedly at himself. His head touched the pillow as he rolled backward, free hand smothering his sniggers, and so he was still lying on his back when Sora shifted atop him, lifting himself up so that he could press their entwined hands into the covers as he smiled down into Riku' smiling face, shaking his head.

"I can kick you out of here, remember?" Sora reminded him teasingly, teeth scraping over his lower lip before he folded his mouth altogether, raising his eyebrows.

"Is that so?" Riku returned, looking utterly unconcerned by that fact. Sora hummed his agreement – but the sound cut off in a startled yip as the other boy's hand slipped up to hold the back of his head, slicing through his trail of thought in an instant before he competently kicked his legs around Sora's and rolled them both over. He seemed not to share Sora's sudden rocketing pulse as they slid around together, Riku' knees closing around Sora's hips to pin him in place, and he smiled as he shifted to sit atop the younger boy's waist. Their hands didn't break apart once, and Riku' fingers were still trapped within Sora's spikes when he stilled, leaning over him with a blatantly smug look colouring his features.

"Go on, then," he crowed, beaming with unabashed joy at having pinned Sora so easily beneath him. His tongue flicked out to wet his lips once, and his chin jutted out challengingly as he murmured, "Kick me out, if you can."

There was a beat.

Sora slowly inhaled one breath, exhaled another, and in the time that it took for him to come around to breathing in again, the entire atmosphere of the room had changed. The morning light was no longer cheerful and bright as it coiled around them, illuminating the tiniest of dust motes that clouded around the velvet curtain hangings that had parted to let that sunshine into the room. Instead, it was strangely intimate as it glowed against the side of Riku' face, setting of the golden notes of his skin and clinging to the bare torso that was tensed as the older boy held himself braced there. He could see the sheen on Riku' lips as he smiled, and it made something twist in his belly even as he wished that he could have left that particular detail unnoticed.

However, as Sora stared at Riku' mouth, noticing every little shape and line that was being made by his unreserved smile, it seemed that the older boy was noticing him, too.

Riku' smirk faded first, to be replaced by a far more genuine surprise as he withdrew ever so slightly to let his eyes roam over Sora's features. The other boy could nearly feel that gaze caressing his skin as it moved over the lines of his cheekbones, then his jaw, and then finally landed somewhere at the side of his neck as a strange noise broke out of Riku' mouth.

Sora saw the older boy's Adam's apple jump in his throat as he slowly slid his hand out from Sora's hair, letting his fingertips trace a swathe of warmth around his neck as it trailed over his skin, pausing with his thumb pressed over a surprisingly sensitive spot.

He didn't understand the look that was unfurling in Riku' features until the other boy spoke again, his voice oddly breathy and just a little bit stunned. "I left a mark on you last night," he murmured, staring at the tiny red circle that marred the younger boy's white skin, a few inches shy of his jaw. He had not noticed it until that moment, nor had Sora realised that he had put enough force into the kiss to leave that lingering trace of it, but it burned beneath Riku' fingertips nonetheless. "I should probably apologise for that, shouldn't I?"

Before Sora could reply with an overwhelming resounding 'no' to that particularly nonsensical statement, a quiet knock rapped on the other side of their bedroom door, startling to hear within the warm, wonderful confines of that space.

At first neither of them even attempted to move. Then, "You should probably answer that," Riku commented quietly, but his intense gaze was still burning into Sora's with a restrained kind of fervour.

"Probably," Sora agreed, but he still did not try to escape from where he lay beneath the older boy. He shifted only slightly in response to the suggestion itself, but the feeling that assaulted him at the sensation of their bodies pressing together with that movement was more than enough to dissuade him from trying to get away. His fingers only tightened around Riku', tugging gently in a thoughtless effort to pull the older boy down toward him before he could even process what he was doing. His head was swimming, and he could only concentrate on the way that Riku' legs were pressing against his hipbones and his eyelashes were lowered as he stared down into Sora's face, breathing through his open mouth. He watched the movements of Riku' throat muscles as he swallowed again, licking his lips once more, and he—

There was another quiet knock, but this time it was tapped directly onto the outside of his bedroom door, close enough to startle them into breaking that long, heated gaze as they whipped around toward the sound.

Even Sora felt stunned by the rough sound of his own unwilling groan, seconds before Riku lifted himself from the younger boy's waist to fall back into a seated position on the bed with a surprising amount of grace. Every single inch of his body protested against the decision, but Sora slid off of the mattress nonetheless and yanked one of his shirts out of his closet as he went out of habit.

"If that's Roxas…" he muttered inaudibly, shaking his head, and then lowered his voice a little as he looked over at Riku, who had not become less tempting with the greater distance between them. "Don't go anywhere, alright?" he said lightly, smiling lopsidedly, and the tiny smirk he received from the other boy tested his resolve near to breaking point.

"I won't," Riku promised in a fervent voice, and then exaggerated his movements as he settled himself back down again, nodding the younger boy along.

Just before he reached the door, Sora was struck by the sudden, intense fear that he was about to be confronted by his father on the other side, and so he found himself squeezing through the smallest gap in the doorway as possible as he slipped out into the airy chamber beyond, his shirt still dangling from his fingertips. He was prepared to affect a voice roughed by vomiting or to pull his body into a lethargic slouch to try and further the lie that he had been ill lately, but when the door thumped safely closed behind him and he stepped out into the larger room, he found that it was not a stern, middle-aged egotist standing before him after all.

"Kairi," he exclaimed in surprise, his voice strangling only slightly at the comparatively welcome sight of his 'wife-to-be' standing in the centre of his suite, made up to perfection and draped in a ridiculous amount of dress cloth as she stood there. It was barely noon, he knew, and yet Sora found himself wondering if she'd already dressed herself for the evening function as he scrabbled with his shirt and tried vainly to tug it over his shoulders without much measure of success. "I wasn't expecting you here, otherwise I would've been wearing—well, something, for one. I'm sorry."

He drew himself short with that last phrase, just as he finally slid the fabric to cover his singlet-clad torso, and it took him a brief moment to figure out why those familiar words sat so strangely on his tongue: he had not said them for the entire day. He had repeated that inane, meek phrase over and over throughout his childhood without any measure of sincerity, and yet somehow they now felt so strange as they left his lips. For the first time, he wondered why it was that he was apologising for something that wasn't his fault.

Kairi seemed not to share his incomprehension; in fact, her chin lifted haughtily, as if she had felt slighted by the fact that he had not expected her unannounced, unscheduled, unwanted arrival. "Yes, well, I can only hope that you're a little more formal tonight, I suppose," she commented, eyes sweeping coolly over his body once in a scrutiny that looked not unlike a critic surveying an unsatisfactory piece of artwork. Her gaze didn't even change once as she returned her gaze to his face, smiling. "Actually, that is the reason that I came around here – to discuss tonight," she clarified, dipping her coiffed head ever so slightly.

"Oh?" Sora tried to feign surprise. "What is it that you wanted to know? Did you want to look over my suit beforehand?"

She seemed not to notice the sarcasm dripping in her tone, or at the very least pointedly overlooked it. "No, I'm sure that your family managed to pack you something appropriate before we set off, that much I'm certain of. No, more specifically," she began again, brightly, "I'd very much like it if you could sit beside your mother tonight, and very happily inform her that you'd like nothing more than to marry me the second that we make it across to America. She seems to be having some doubts about the whole endeavour, and since she actually mentioned that she was considering giving the decision over to you, I'd rather we just assured her that this was the best plan for everyone involved."

Sora actually had no breath to respond for several seconds. She spoke those conceited words with such easy nonchalance that he was suddenly mired in the firm belief that she was completely and utterly insane. Her eyes were colder than usual, devoid of the usual vapid haze that left her looking more than a little bit moronic most of the time, and she stared directly into Sora's face.

"Um," he said slowly, too stunned to manage anything other than that particularly tactless response, "no?"

For as much as he was taken aback by her suggestion, Kairi looked just as bewildered by his reply. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, with a very thin veneer of politeness. Her gaze was sharpening with her displeasure, and almost, Sora thought that she glanced over his shoulder to the door of his bedroom before it flickered back to fasten onto his.

Sora cleared his throat once, uncomfortably. "I think I mean 'no'. As in, 'no, I'm not going to do that', thank you. I don't want to dissuade my mother from giving me free reign over my life, just like I don't want to marry you the second that we arrive in America. And I think you know that I don't, so why would you even bother asking me to do that? You had to have known that I'd say no."

"I did," Kairi acceded easily, without shrugging. Her laced shoulders never shifted from their perfect posture as she stood and vacuously gazed into his consternated expression. "I never told you that you had to be sincere in the words, just so long as you gave them, and I certainly never expected you to actually want to do it. Just that you will, so that this marriage can go ahead as it's supposed to; like my family wanted, like your parents want, and like it should have been from the beginning if you'd not been caught up in the middle of this endless horror of a journey." She even affected a shudder at the words, while Sora stared, dumbfounded.

"No," he repeated again, loudly and clearly, and a frown tugged his brows into a firm line. "No, I'm not going to do that. I can't make it any clearer than that. I'm not going to marry you."

"You will," she returned, just as surely.

Sora's mouth fell open, and he floundered for words before he demanded, "What could possibly make you believe that?!"

"Because if you don't," Kairi replied calmly, "I'm going to go your father's room, join him in the sitting room, and while he's pouring me a cup of tea I'm going to quietly inform him that his only son and progeny has been bumming a serving boy in his spare time on this ship."

A choked noise escaped Sora's mouth.

"And a stowaway, no less," she added in a thoughtful tone, pursing her lips in a reproachful expression as she tutted beneath her breath. She shook her head ruefully. "Do you think that he'd make it to America once your father found out about that particular crime, or would he just be locked up down beneath the gulley until he starved to death? Either way, I can't imagine that it's going to be a fair price to pay considering it's hardly his fault that you won't agree to a very simple arrangement."

"A very simple arrangement?" Sora shot back, caught between incredulity and disgust. "You're blackmailing me into marrying you, when you know as well as I do that neither of this actually wants to do this. You don't even like me, if you care to remember, so why does it matter? Why do you want this?"

This time, she shrugged; daintily lifting both gloved hands in the air as her head cocked to the side. Her expression had smoothened out into nothingness once more, though. "Money," she stated blandly, after a moment's consideration. "A house. Stability, security, safety – a husband. See, unlike you, I do keep my promises when I make them, so when I agreed that I would marry you I take that as something that I'm actually going to follow through with. There are only so many people left in the world that could make such an offer to my family, and you aren't going to ruin this for us just because you've got some sort of tryst happening with that boy in there. Yes, I know he's there," she added in an undertone, voice lowering nastily with disdain, "you've hardly made it difficult to notice. Really, I should just tell your family the truth regardless of what you want – or who you want – because it's wrong to keep lying to them about this. If we do this my way, you can fuck every single boy from here to America and smile while you're doing it, so long as I get that ring on my finger."

Sora startled again, both at the use of the curse and of the words that surrounded them. He was reeling unpleasantly with the sickening idea being thrown up into the air, and suddenly the peaceful movements of the ship beneath his feet felt far more unwelcome than they did soothing.

"How does this make sense to you?" he asked, once he had regained his voice, and his query was completely genuine in his incomprehension. "How can you hear what you're saying and not realise how wrong that is?"

"What would you suggest for me instead?" Kairi replied. "That I should wait for another wealthy family to come along and claim me – or better yet, wait until I've aged enough to the point where any offer would either be one of scandal and pity? This is how things work in families like ours, haven't you realised that yet? I don't have the option of running away with the first staff member with a pretty smile, so forgive me if I don't feel the need to indulge your fantasies while the reality is slowly unravelling around us both."

"It's a marriage," Sora burst out, shocked, "not slavery. They can't sell you!"

"You've clearly not had enough experience with the inner workings of the elite, Sora," Kairi told him, with a strange kind of pity in her tone and her deadened gaze. "I don't care whether you keep going with him, but your family has already agreed on your behalf – you know they have. You can't have expected that you'd really be able to get away with that, could you?"

Sora didn't respond; he had.

Kairi's voice softened a bit into a tone that he had never heard before as she murmured, "It's not as if there's anything new, here. You already knew that this would happen eventually, didn't you? It's why we're even on this trip. And I'm not going to insist that you leave… him alone," she said, gesturing vaguely toward the bedroom once more. "I couldn't have less concern for whatever your preferences are. I might even prefer it this way. But you are going to do this; you are going to tell your mother what we both know that you have to, and you're going to do to it with a smile on your face. Keep whatever bedroom habits you want until we arrive, just so long as you know that you've a responsibility waiting for you when you do."

"I won't do it." Sora wanted to sound certain, but instead he suppressed a wince at the petulant tone of his protest. He felt like a child digging his heels into the carpet – and yet at the same time, he didn't care how it came about, so long as he wasn't doomed to the fate that was written all over Kairi's painted face. "I can't do it."

"And I can't not do it," she countered simply, as if it were already settled. "So either you talk to your family about this, and reassure them that it's all going according to plan, or I'll talk to them, instead, and you'll lose whatever incentive you had to leave in the first place."

Sora's mouth moved without sound several times, his lips brushing together as he fought past the overwhelmingly lost feeling that had cascaded over him in those unbelievably short minutes. He tried for some sort of rational argument or defence that would let him disprove her in that moment so that they could both escape, but instead he landed upon, "Why are you doing this? To both of us?"

Kairi was quiet for a long moment. Then, "Just tell your mother what she wants to hear from you, and then return to whatever happy holiday that you're having on this godforsaken ship; that's all there is to it."

With that, the pretty girl gave only an empty bowing of her head in farewell before she fixed her gave onto the exit and swept her skirts up around her ankles as she walked away. Sora watched as her expression smoothened out into the icy, lofty mask that he recognised from their time together and wondered why she bothered making herself so miserable.

"I think I actually liked you better when you were pretending to be an idiot," he commented aloud, his voice low, and Kairi paused with her hand gracefully perched on the brass doorhandle as she tipped her head toward him.

"I usually like it that way, too," she replied quietly, and then she was gone.

—

Sora didn't specifically mention how much that conversation had affected him, but in the hours that followed he had the suspicion that Riku knew how troubled he was – if only for the fact that he didn't immediately climb on top of the older boy's tempting body the moment that Kairi left so that he could taste every inch of visible skin there.

Riku didn't push the issue at all, though, and he simply chatted easily in the time before Sora had to prepare for the ball; taking away the younger boy's responsibility to contribute to the conversation as he calmly kept him entertained with every topic under the sun. They both stayed in the rooms that day without venturing out at all, preferring to lounge on the sofa together with Riku' feet in Sora's lap as they continued to waste the sunlit hours on soft smiles and even gentler gazes. And though he never mentioned it, either, Sora was grateful.

When the time did come for him to prepare, the other boy did take a strange glee in being able to watch as he donned the waistcoat that had been provided for him and the bowtie that was only of the only articles of clothing that he had chosen willingly.

Riku even helped loop it around his neck for him, and even Sora's petty attempts to cling onto his bad mood faded in the wake of the small, private smile that ghosted over the other boy's lips as he stood between Sora and the full length mirror behind him, absently twirling the slip of material around itself into a neat little bow that nestled into his collar.

He smiled his satisfaction once he was done, looking more than a little bit pleased with his efforts. "There. That doesn't seem so bad, now, does it?" Riku pressed gently, leaning forward just enough for him to catch Sora's eye with a quirk of an eyebrow and a lopsided smile. "You've got nothing to be afraid of. I can't imagine that anyone's going to notice a thing if you step on her feet, or something. In fact I encourage that; I think it'll make the whole night more fun."

"It's not that," Sora told him softly, shaking his head, and Riku fell uncharacteristically silent. "I doubt anyone's even going to be looking at me, but when they do… even my father doesn't see a thing about how much I hate it all, or how much I don't want to be there. He thinks that I'm just doing it to rebel against him, or something. He doesn't see that it's not… who I am. That I'm not who he thinks I've been all these years. He doesn't see me at all. I'm not sure anyone out there does."

It was true enough, even if he did choose to omit the fact that he was choosing to further a lie that would almost certainly keep them apart in the future.

Riku' eyes were kind and gentle as he stared up into Sora's face, his expression softening to the point where Sora's chest ached as he looked at it. Those eyes were so filled with understanding that he actually found himself believing it as Riku edged a tiny bit closer and murmured, "I saw you, Sora."

Sora's eyelashes fluttered slightly. There was a soft kind of despair in his voice as he quietly asked, "Did you?"

"Right away," Riku affirmed, with a very sure nod of his head. "You were the only one that wasn't scurrying away from the terrible sun before we boarded, and I noticed you right off. I can't say I expected that I'd actually end up…" The older boy's voice trailed off to nothingness, stuttering to a stop that seemed as unexpected to Riku as it did to the boy that he was addressing. His lips parted with a silence that gave the words more meaning than they had a moment ago, filling it with a significance that was unbearably heavy as it hung in the air between them before Riku finally finished, "… here… but I did see you there. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't, to be honest, and now that I am here…" He paused, giving a strange half-shrug of his shoulders as his lips turned up at the corners. "I quite like it."

Sora was still hearing those bright words playing over in his mind, drowning out the other voices that droned on in the background of the function hall. Roxas was seated with his family for this event – for which he felt a wave of sympathy for his friend – but they were on opposite sides of the table, preventing any real communication beyond polite pleasantries and requests for the salt.

He was pulled onto the dance floor not long after he and Kairi crept their way into the ballroom, urged on by his parents in a fit of new cruelty, yet even as he took the time to appreciate the music that flowed around them and the band that was performing, he could only resent their presence for allowing the closeness that meant his clear memory of Riku' voice was continually interrupted by Kairi's running commentary as they dance stiffly in the middle of the dance floor, his fingers barely grazing her as they turned.

"I heard that she actually tried to seduce one of the bellboys when he came into her room with fresh towels," Kairi whispered with a strange kind of delight, gesturing with her chin to one of the other dancing couples that were revolving around them. The woman she indicated was wearing far too much powder on her face, ineffectually hiding the very slight beginnings of wrinkles around her eyes, and her entire demeanour seemed to be devoted to hiding her age. It was odd to witness when, in Sora's opinion, she truly wasn't old enough to merit such manic dedication to disguise.

Kairi leaned a little closer as they turned again, feet moving in steps that they had both long since memorised, but it was not out of intimacy; it was only so that she could continue gossiping without being overheard. "He came into her room at about four o'clock in the afternoon, apparently, and he left at only five minutes past when he realised what was going on. She is married, after all, and that's her husband dancing with her right now. I can't imagine why she thought that she'd be able to get away with such a ridiculous affair while everyone's trapped so closely on this tugboat."

"It's the largest liner we have," Sora pointed out in a dull voice, and then instantly regretted contributing to the inane conversation. He hurried to continue before she could start up again. "And do you have to act like that now? I already know that this is all pretence to get what you want, so can you drop it while we're out of earshot, at least? I'm already here."

The girl in his arms glanced up into his face once, scrutinising his empty expression, and her tone was dubious as she asked, "You'd rather we danced in complete silence, instead?"

"I wouldn't mind it, no," Sora admitted, sighing slightly. He felt wearied by his own moroseness just by listening to that pitiful sound, but he could not help it as he stared around the glittering ballroom and longed to return to his own room so that he could pretend this wasn't where he was destined to be. "I'm already doing what you asked, alright?" he said in a strained voice. "So, please, let's not pretend that this is anything other than what it is and just admit that we'd rather be elsewhere."

"Alright," Kairi agreed readily, and for a time they were quiet.

They had two more dances after that, each one done with precision and a dutiful attention to footwork as Sora's parents looked on with a strange mixture of pride, concern and cold criticism all at the same time. Roxas's expression was worried, too, but it was for the look on Sora's face rather than his own fears about the boy; he only saw the present misery that was etched across his friend's features as he danced and wondered what had transpired that would cause such dejection.

It was during a particularly uneventful ballroom number when Kairi spoke again, her voice sharp with impatience this time. "Can you put some effort into looking like you're not about to give up on your life?" she asked pointedly, tightening her grip on his hand to catch his attention – which, admittedly, had wandered to a very different set of hands and a very different waist beneath his fingertips. "No one is going to believe this pretence of ours if you don't at least look remotely interested in your surroundings. You can go back to your boy in a few hours, no harm done, and then you can enjoy him for the rest of the trip; just give me one night to convince them, that's all."

"I'm trying," Sora replied in a tense voice.

"You look like I'm stomping on your feet constantly!"

"Maybe you should, so that we can sit back down again," Sora suggested swiftly. He lowered his voice even further so that no one would catch those irritable words, but his ire vanished almost instantly as he was struck by the memory of his attempt to teach Riku to dance, resulting in that stumbling fall that was so utterly pathetic that it still managed to bring a smile to his face as it surfaced again in his mind.

Kairi must have noticed the look on his face, because her frustrated commentary quietened for several long moments until Sora finally came back to reality and blinked to find that she was watching him with an odd look on her face.

"What is it?" he mumbled self-consciously, straightening beneath that unfamiliar scrutiny. She rarely paid so much attention to him at all, not that he was ever going to complain about that phenomenon, and so it was mildly disconcerting to have those sharp, unemotional eyes trained on his own without her looking away or making a vapid comment that would repulse him all over again.

"Do you love him?" she asked with incredible bluntness, her gaze unwavering.

Sora managed not to squeak in response to that bold question, but it was a very near call as his throat seemed to close without warning. His heart pounded once, hard, and he had to swallow past the crushing sensation that he had been trying to deny all night, as his thoughts continued to stray back to his room and the wonderful person that was still trapped there.

"I've only known him a couple of days," Sora replied, once he had regained control of his voice, and he was relieved to hear that he sounded vaguely casual as he spoke. "You know that."

She still stared. "That's not an answer, and I don't remember asking you how long you've known him."

"Does it matter either way?" Sora returned suddenly, before he could stop himself. His voice was deepened with frustration for the first time, as he let his gaze roam the length of the hall rather than returning to Kairi's curious face. "Does it make a difference to you either way? If I do, or I don't, will that change the fact that you're still going to take him from me if this doesn't turn out the way you want it?"

Kairi had the decency to look mildly ashamed as she replied, "No, it won't."

"Then I don't owe you an answer," Sora told her, his voice returning to its usual pitch once more as he released the irritation that had flared inside him. "It has nothing to do with you, and as far I see it I'm doing more for you than you are for me."

It seemed that she had no worthy response to that particular argument, because they finally lapsed into the silence that Sora had so yearned for. Kairi did not speak for the next few minutes, allowing him to remove himself from his surroundings for a little while as he replayed moments that finally manage to convincingly lift his expression into that of an enchanted boy, standing in the arms of the one he loved with bright lights shining down around his head. The fact that none of it was directed toward Kairi was of little consequence to either of them.

Sora might have fallen into the belief that the dancing portion of the evening would have been the worst to stomach, had it not been for the fact that he could feel his father's disapproving glare before he even crossed out of the dance floor to return to their table, Kairi hanging from his arm with as little contact between them as they could possibly manage.

"That was absolutely beautiful," his mother commented as they approached, eyes lighting up at the sight of them. Her smile was wide yet cautious as she looked into his face with earnest affection, and Sora hated that the expression was a familiar one. "I always said that you did so well with your lessons, it's wonderful that you have a chance to be together as a couple for now, isn't it? You looked stunning, dear," she added to Kairi, with another careful smile to the girl at his side.

Sora pulled out Kairi's chair as he was supposed to, pushed it back in and waited a moment before sliding into his own place, waiting for the inevitable criticisms to fall.

"She's right, you both did wonderfully out on that floor."

He shot a sharp glance in his father's direction, momentarily forgetting that he should have not displayed open surprise at praise from a parental figure while in public, and he felt a strange relief upon noticing the waiting staff that was hovering at his father's elbow. Somehow, he was glad to know that it was only an act put on for the witnesses around them, because the alternative was so much more disconcerting.

Though he actively regretted it as he spoke, Sora couldn't stop himself from replying, "Thank you, sir, I'm glad that you think so. Perhaps you can join in the next set."

He felt a sick vindication at how false his father's laugh sounded in the next moment, as he pretended to boom out a chuckle that visibly startled the man serving oysters from a silver serving platter. It was someone that Sora recognised from his brief forays into the kitchens with Riku, and he received a small smile before the man continued shovelling crustaceans onto his father's plate. Sora could only hope they were poisonous.

"No, I think I'll leave that for the young men, tonight," his father chuckled, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "There are some things that a man simply no longer does at a certain age, and as it happens the waltz does seem to fall under that— Don't you ever disrespect me like that again." The waiter had moved a sufficient distance away from their table, out of earshot, and the napkin in his father's hand slammed into the table within his clenched fist, heavy enough to make the cutlery rattle around his plate. "After the debacle that you've already caused over the last few days and the insolence which with you've neglected your responsibilities, you should be kissing the soles of my shoes and thanking me for not punishing you."

Silently, Sora questioned whether or not this particular night should have counted as punishment in itself, but he said nothing as he listened to his father continue.

"But I do understand that you're a young man yet," he allowed magnanimously, straightening in his chair, "and so I am willing to excuse your behaviour up until this point. But from now on you will do what I say, when I say it and if you make a single hint of complaint about that fact, verbal or otherwise, I will cuff you to the sink in your rooms and you can remain there until I deem you fit to converse with regular society, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir."

The man to his right huffed an approving note through his nose, nodding once or twice. "That's an improvement, at least. Perhaps this time next week you'll actually be something approaching a useful member of this family once again."

"Yes, sir."

He paused where he had been about to reach for his knife and fork, and then let his hands fall to rest on the edge of the table as he asked, in a controlled voice, "Are you mocking me?"

"No, sir."

"I'm sure that he's just tired," Sora's mother put in gently, looking between the two men in her life like the mediator that she would always be in their family. "He's been very ill, haven't you? Hasn't he?" she pressed, glancing to Roxas almost in desperation as no one else made any comment to break the tension that was already twanging in the air, discordant and uncomfortable around the head of the table.

Roxas startled at being addressed so directly, having become accustomed to sitting quietly during such family squabbles in his time with the Styles family. "Oh, yes," he blurted instantly, rising to the occasion with a heartbreaking amount of effort into his defence of his friend. "I'm surprised that you've even made it this far, actually, considering how bad it was the other night. I wouldn't be shocked if it comes back again later, actually – not that I want to bring anyone down, or anything, but I've heard they don't just go away this easily.

"He'll manage."

Sora watched the sadness blooming in his mother's face, and he caught her gaze so that he could send her an encouraging smile, even as his father bit out those clipped words and continued with his meal. He also made sure to shoot a grateful glance in Roxas's direction as his friend lapsed into a discomfited smile that rivalled the concern that was showing in the face of the woman beside him.

The rest of that course passed in a horrible kind of standstill, as each of them participated in their own kind of falsehood. Sora's mother did not address the fact that she had been intended to discuss the marriage options and Sora's contribution in that regard; Kairi did not mention that she knew of those plans as she took Sora's hand and laid them both on the table, wrapping them together in a parody of affection that was clearly visible from all places on the table; Roxas did not cease in his efforts to keep Sora's escape wide open and available for later on in the night; Sora pretended that he didn't want to trade his father for another model, and his father did the same with Sora, he knew.

It only became startlingly obvious as, when the brandy began to circulate and the mentions of a smoking room were suggested for the men, his father clapped a hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit in place as they continued nibbling at the desserts laid out in front of them.

"Tell me the truth now, Kairi," he said clearly, addressing her around Sora as if he were merely an inconvenience. "How soon would you like your wedding to be once we arrive? Would you like to find a dress while we're there, or would you like the engagement to be prolonged as possible so you can flash a diamond around town and make all other women wild with jealousy?"

Even Kairi looked slightly taken aback with the bold wording, but she recovered quickly. "It makes little difference to me, I can assure you. I have no problem with enjoying the country without worrying about—"

"Don't you think that we should discuss this more privately, dear?" his mother interrupted delicately, speaking with a forwardness that she rarely dared while out in a public setting such as this one. She was staring at Sora's father, who slowly turned his head to meet that pointed gaze with only incredulity showing in his own. It was not a pleasant surprise. "Perhaps we should look over the details of his arrangement before we start planning for the future while we've over there. Not that we're not delighted by you," she added quickly, glancing at Kairi, "but there are other details that need to be sorted out before we can do anything else."

His father blinked, his brow furrowed, and just one word was snorted out of his lips. "No." The dismissal was nothing more than that, swift and harsh, and he somehow managed to capture a disdain in that one syllable that seemed to state that it was obvious that she should have no input. He turned to face Kairi again, but he was cut off before he could begin again.

"I really think that we should consider this more carefully," she said emphatically, holding her napkin tightly in both hands, as if trying to smother angry tremors in those fingertips. "For one thing, I don't think we've ever thought to ask Sora what—"

"Because his opinion doesn't matter in this," his father snapped coldly. "And neither does yours, for that matter, so please sit back and shut your mouth before you embarrass yourself – and me. It's already settled."

This time, it was Sora that interrupted his father's renewed attempt to converse with the girl that was now sitting very still at his elbow, her fingers splayed on her lap. Roxas looked likewise immobilised as he listened to the new note in Sora's tone. "Don't talk to her like that," he murmured in a very low voice, slowly letting his gaze travel to meet that of his father's. "That's my mother you're talking to, and you owe her more respect than that – I expect you to give it to her."

His father was quick to move from shock to anger, as he leaned forward to hiss, "You don't have the right to expect anything from me. After what you've done with the life I've given you, it's a miracle that you've even been offered a marriage in the first place – though it's even more of a phenomenon that someone as lovely as she would even agree to consider someone like you."

"It's a marriage I don't want," Sora muttered hotly, but that was all he managed before his father was speaking again.

"It's a marriage you should be grateful for. You can have a career, a business, everything and anything that we can offer you – and still you have the nerve to sit and question me for it. When was my son replaced with this snivelling, whining brat?" he asked, waving his glass in the air agitatedly. "Did the change occur straight from the cot, do you think, or was it a defect from birth? Perhaps this is what you were meant to become; so wasted and absorbed with your own fate that you can't even begin to appreciate what you've been given. You have a beautiful girl at your side now. You have wealth, comfort, luxury – what more would you ask from me? What more could we give you that you don't already possess?"

"Freedom?" Sora suggested quietly, glowering at his father as his hands clenched into fists. "Have you ever considered the thought that I don't want what you're offering me? Take away the wealth and the luxury – I don't care! I don't it!"

"You ungrateful—I have been nothing but good to you this evening, why did you have to ruin that with your insane insolence once more?"

Sora's mouth fell open with a stuttering noise the moment the word 'good' broke into the air, but he managed to push past that instead to address the real issue at hand. "It's not insolence to try and explain why I'm not the person that you want to be! It's not insolence to ask you to have some sort of manners while addressing my mother, and it's not insolence to try and impress upon you the unbelievably simple truth that I don't want to be your son!"

His mother gasped at the latter sentence and Roxas's lips tightened into a grim expression, but it had no effect on the man to which it was directed. "Well, you don't have a choice in that," he informed Sora, voice lowering nastily. "Just like I didn't have a choice with you, and like you don't have a choice with this. You're going to marry her, and you're going to treat her with all the generosity and kindness that she deserves, and that is final."

There were people beginning to stare at them from the neighbouring tables, and that attention was not turned aside as his father suddenly smacked the edge of the table with the palm of his hand in emphasis. It wasn't a particularly violent gesture, but as people began to rise from their seats it caused more than one head to whirl in their direction, and Sora found that his cheeks were beginning to flush with heat. It wasn't with embarrassment, though; he was finally finished with feeling ashamed of himself, after years of sitting by and letting the derision flow over him in tides of misplaced disappointment.

His hands were shaking, but his voice was even as he stated, "No, it's not final."

"You are—"

"I'm gay." It wasn't entirely the truth, if he was being honest with himself, and his voice cracked on the word that should have been steady and strong – making it sound more like a challenge than the assertion that he had hoped it to be – but it had the desired effect as his father cut off mid-syllable, his lips pausing around that shape in what should have been a comical expression. Sora could feel a spasm in his jaw as he clenched his teeth, grinding them together as he stared and waited for the realisation to hit.

When it did, it was not what he expected. His father only blinked, loosened his posture once more, and he actually had the audacity to shrug as he turned to his son, looked him in directly in the eye and asked, "And?"

"And?" That squawk came from his mother, her voice pitched higher in what sounded suspiciously like relief rather than hysteria. "You can't expect this marriage to work if—"

His father silenced her with a look, but Sora quickly took advantage of that quiet.

"I won't do it," he stated, calmly.

"You will, or I'll take away your inheritance," his father returned, and his voice was so confident that Sora nearly burst out into laughter as he watched the man lean back in his chair like there was no possibility that Sora would dare risk that challenge.

In fact, Sora did snort once as he replied, "Alright."

That made more of an impression than his admission had, and Sora felt that there was something seriously wrong with his father that he could be more moved by the matter of finance than his son's sexuality. "I'll disinherit you completely, leave you out of the family will."

"Please do."

"We'll write you out of the family!"

"I thought this was meant to be a punishment, sir," Sora cut in coldly, managing to find his usual, contemptuous drawl just in time for his father to finally catch up to the realisation that he was being completely genuine in his acceptance of those statements.

"You'll have nothing," he added, as if Sora had somehow missed the meaning behind the concept. "You'll be destitute, and if you think that I'm going to take you back once you've been run into the ground, then—"

"Then I'd be as ignoraint as you are for actually thinking that I'd want to come back to you once I've left." A moment's silence burst around the table with those icy words, and Sora found that he was standing from his chair, looking down into the stunned face of his father. "If you know nothing else about me, at least believe that I'd be smart enough to stay away as soon as I've had the chance to escape. Keep that in mind. Oh," he added, as he turned aside, "and I've also been consorting with criminals recently, which is what your sweet girl is going to tell you once I've left."

Sora's footsteps were obnoxiously loud as he walked around the table to stand beside his mother, before he leant down to press a kiss onto her cheek, lingering there for a moment with his arm around her shoulders and their heads close together as he murmured, "Good night, mum. I love you." Her hand rose to hold his arm around her, and she rested her temple against his for just a short moment before he pulled back again, his straight posture barely managing to conceal how violently his hands were shaking at his sides or how wild his pulse was with stress. No matter how much satisfaction he gained from those words, there was still blind panic ringing in his ears as he looked around at the table, knowing that he had irrevocably crossed a line that he had never neared before that night.

Fearing that his voice would shake if he used it again, Sora only managed a nod around the table and a loaded look in Roxas's direction that brought his friend to his feet before he turned and walked straight for the exit of the ballroom, feeling dozens of eyes drilling into his back as he went. He then felt Roxas's comforting hand on his shoulder, though, guiding him through the crowd – and it was enough that he managed to beat back the dizziness that sparkled in his vision as he continued walking.

Sora's return to the suite was not dignified, controlled or even particularly sane in any normal definition of the world. He did not bother hiding his haste as he broke off from Roxas's side, hearing his friend's muttered explanation that he wouldn't need to be staying in their rooms anyway, and then hurried through the maddening halls of the ship in search of the one door that would bring him the one person that he needed most of all in that moment, above every else that he could remember passing through his life. He could feel the urgency that was pounding in his steps, the beats of his heart and even the manic breaths he drew as he sprinted toward his rooms.

Riku was already inside, waiting for him, and when Sora fell over the threshold it appeared that the older boy hadn't been doing much of anything at all. He was standing braced against the edge of the love seat, his expression curiously blank and still, and even though he could barely think straight past the pounding of alarm and adrenaline in his blood, Sora wondered if perhaps he had vastly misjudged Riku' obliviousness after all. There was something too pensive about his drawn look that made it seem as if he knew exactly what Sora had been put through for that evening.

It quickly flickered into alarm upon seeing the younger boy, though, and he straightened the instant that the other boy pushed through the door. "Sora?" he asked worriedly, striding forward to meet him halfway. His hands caught at Sora's forearms, and the younger boy did the same as they stood in place, gripping each other so tightly that Sora could feel his hands losing feeling. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Do you really mean it?" Sora murmured despairingly, ignoring the questions that were turned upon him so that he could demand his own. He swallowed again, struggling to find even breath once more, and he stared too hard into Riku' eyes as his fingertips slid over the other boy's wrists to find his hands, desperate for that contact. "All of what you've said, about America and us and everything else – did you mean it, or was it just – Did you mean it? Do you really want me to come with you like you say you do?"

There was no hesitation in Riku' reply, or in the hands that turned to hold Sora's, squeezing his fingers reassuringly. "I do. Of course I mean it." He paused for only a split second before he added, more quietly, "Of course I want you."

"And you're not just saying that because we're here now, or because—"

"Sora, I'm not going to leave you," Riku interjected, with a quiet intensity that bled through every part of him in that moment. His sincerity was plain in the set of his mouth, the plaintive note in his voice and in the way that he stepped forward to grip Sora's hands more tightly than before. "I swear, I'm not. When I say that I want you to come with me in America, it's because I can barely stand the thought of being where you aren't – not ever. And because if I can feel that way after a few bloody days then I can't even imagine what it's going to be like if I get more time than this with you. And because I want to go see the Statue of Liberty with you, and… get you a tan on the rooftop of whatever seedy hotel that we end up staying at, and because I wouldn't want anything for you that you don't want for yourself; so if I have to row you out of here with my own two hands, then I will."

A broken laugh escaped Sora's lips at those last words, but it quickly faded to be replaced with a sigh.

Riku waited until he had Sora's full attention again, ducking his head to catch the younger boy's gaze as he lowered his voice to add, "And when I say that I want you…" Sora's breath stopped short. "… it's because I've barely managed to stop thinking about you since that first time that you smiled at me, out on the wharf."

Sora's reply strangled somewhere in his throat, combined with the rioting that was occurring in his midriff, but Riku took mercy on him as he brushed past the non-existent reply to lean forward instead, wrapping his arms tightly around the younger boy's frame. Though he could feel something shattering inside him to do so, Sora turned into that embrace and hugged Riku so tightly that his face pressed into the older boy's neck and he could nearly wrap his hands all the way around his slim waist. Riku never complained, though, and it seemed that he shifted impossibly closer so that there wasn't even one part of their bodies that wasn't pressed flush together in a silent offer of comfort and closeness.

Sora could feel each rise and fall of the breaths that were lifting Riku' chest, so close were their bodies in those achingly long moments, as neither of them moved to separate again for some time. He had never felt anything as painfully tangible as the emotions that were swirling within him then. He could feel every swell of the longing that was making his eyelids slip closed again, breathing in the fresh, clean scent that clung to Riku' skin, and his eyelids were shifting with the same tremors that were quivering in his fingertips. He had never felt so close to anyone in his entire life, yet at the same time it was not enough to just stand there and feel the weight of Riku' body leaning into his own with a warmth that actually seemed to hurt. His chest was aching all over again, but that crushing sensation was only spreading throughout the rest of his body as they lingered in that drawn-out embrace.

He thought that he just might suffocate on it, and he did find that he gasped softly as Riku set his hands on Sora's shoulders to withdraw. No matter what reassurances the older boy had given him, Sora still felt a surging of doubt and rejection as he felt Riku pulling away from him again – but then those fingertips curled around his neck, thumbs pressing beneath his jaw. Although he did pull back from that clutching hold, that enduring sense of closeness remained unbroken as he shifted back so that his face was hovering directly in front of Sora's, his eyes unbearably vivid with feeling from so close.

A shaky sigh sighed out of Riku' lungs, inhaled with Sora's unsteady gasp a moment later.

"Riku," he began, his voice keening, "I—"

He stammered to a stop as Riku' fingers touched his cheek, silencing him with a profoundly simple caress that slid from his hairline to the edge of his jaw as the other boy's hand moulded itself to the side of his face. His thumb continued to stroke back and forth across his cheek, beneath the hollow his eye, and it did not stop even as Riku turned to press a soft kiss onto the younger boy's temple first, leaning up so that he could hold that simple pressure for several seconds. His lips moved to Sora's cheek next, close to his ear, and the younger boy didn't bother to hide how he shivered and sighed at those gentle touches.

Riku' hand was still cradling his face, but his fingertips gradually stilled as his mouth pressed those small kisses all the way down to the edge of Sora's mouth, hovering there without closing the distance as if he was unsure as to whether he could continue.

Absently, Sora found himself wondering how he had ever considered hesitating before this moment, because as Riku' lips turned to his own with such painful tentativeness, he suddenly knew that he should have taken every single moment they had together and used it as he did in that moment – as he shifted to let his mouth brush against the other boy's, just barely letting their lips touch without closing them at all. He was holding his breath as he did so, too afraid to jar Riku into uncertainty, but he felt how the older boy suddenly relaxed in his arms, beneath his touch. Sora felt it as Riku' fingertips slid into his hair, combing upward from the nape of his neck to tangle within those spikes before he simply closed his lips around Sora's where they had been separate before, eliminating that last trace of doubt that had been tugging at them both.

Sora's eyes closed instantly, but it was not out of habit; it was because as Riku' mouth met with his own, the dizzying feeling that swept through him left his vision sparkling and blurring out anything else that he could have seen, rendering his eyesight useless. All that mattered in that moment was that he could feel Riku' lips gently dragging at his own, shaping around Sora's as he kissed him with a striking amount of tenderness. His mouth was warm, and somehow distinctly a part of the boy himself even though the sensation was so new that Sora's hands were shaking as they slid up Riku' back, pulling him closer. There was something of his mischief in the hint of teeth that grazed Sora's bottom lip, or in the smile that bent his mouth as he did so, yet at the same time he moved so slowly and carefully, gauging every move so that he wouldn't startle the younger boy.

When they did finally separate, it was only so that Riku could let his eyes flicker over Sora's expression once, instantly reading the look there so that he seemed to gasp ever so slightly before he offered his mouth back to the younger boy's.

The minutes that followed were so achingly surreal that Sora had a hard time really letting himself believe that it wasn't a dream as he carefully walked the older boy through those beautiful doors. This time, as the mattress sunk beneath their combined weight and Sora's body flushed with desire, there was no knock to pull them out of their daze; the only sounds left were the frantic beats of Sora's heart in his ears, the soft noises that his lips made against Riku' skin and the even quieter noises that left both their throats as their bodies moved as one, legs tangling and hands twining together over and over as they lay there, enjoying every moment that they could.

Riku made no complaint when Sora's questing fingers found the edge of his shirt as he reverently ran his touch down the ridges of his side, and even though the younger boy had not dared to ask; he pulled his mouth away from Sora's with a small sigh before he simply sat up so that he could strip it from his back completely. He eagerly divested the other boy of his clothes, too, when Sora shifted to do the same, and his mouth felt almost too wonderful as it slowly worshipped the torso beneath him, leaving Sora to struggle with his breath as those soft lips dragged over his sternum, tracing new fire into his skin.

He had hoped to keep some control over his actions, but he still lost himself to a noticeable shiver of pleasure when Riku' lips brushed his lower stomach, but above the waistband that was still firmly in place – and for the first time, Riku stopped.

Vastly misinterpreting the response, the older boy was swift to lift himself back up to a safe distance, resting his forehead against Sora's for a long second. "I'm sorry," he breathed, shaking his head as if Sora had been anything less than euphoric with the knowledge that the older boy wanted him in return. "We don't have to do anything tonight; we have all the time in the world. Just this…" His fingertips were even gentler than his voice as he touched Sora's lips against, painting his touch against that peachy skin. "…this is still going to be the best night of my life."

"No," Sora replied hoarsely, and he could see how the other boy was confused by that word until he closed his hands around Riku' beautiful face and drew him back completely, stealing another long, lingering kiss from him before he spoke again. He held that gaze as he fought back the heady sensation that threatened to ruin his efforts at speech, so that he could murmur, "No, I want you – all of you. You have to know that, that there isn't anything that I don't already love about you, not even one. I care more about you than any other person that has ever meant anything to me, and I know it won't make any sense, but I do."

His voice muffled as Riku kissed him again, seemingly unable to stop himself from doing do, and so Sora's words were spoken straight against the other boy's lips as he whispered, "I want you to—" He broke off softly, closing his eyes, and when he opened them he could only trust that Riku would understand as he repeated, "I want you."

By the grace of every moment that they'd been granted together so far, Riku did understand. His hands slid into Sora's spikes once more, holding him in place while he kissed him again – and this time, he didn't stop. Sora's blood soared happily as his arms closed around Riku' waist, pulling the other boy on top of him completely while their bodies aligned with stunning ease.

He expected the brief pain that came with it, as he had always been prepared for a sting whenever something good happened to him, but it was barely noticeable before a very different feeling began inside him, thrumming within his blood like a taut wire even as he couldn't pay attention to anything but the feeling of Riku' body moving with his, pulled so close that he could barely distinguish between them anymore. His throat hummed tiny moans against Riku' mouth as he kissed him, ecstatic in a way that was more to do with how Riku was murmuring his name than just the pleasure that was sparking inside him; he could feel the smile that lingered in Riku' kiss, even then, and it made his skin dance with warmth as he pulled the other boy ever closer.

And, in the midst of it all, Sora could hear waves.

Outside and within, he could hear every break and swell of the waves that crashed through him and against him; spreading over his skin and washing through his blood as he arched his body into Riku'. With his eyes closed he forgot about the room around them, or even the bed beneath his overheated, writhing body. The blackness of his eyelids sparked into dozens of different hues, but his senses were too full to see them; consumed by the heat of Riku moving inside of him, and of the intangible, seizing pleasure that rose and higher inside him with every second. It, too, came in waves, but they were gradually melding together so that there was barely any pause between each new crippling sensation that had his hands clinging to Riku' shoulders as he breathed into the older boy's neck, rocking his hips up to avoid breaking any of the glorious pressure that was building between them.

It was almost too much to bear, but when Sora opened his mouth to say that, he could only manage a broken moan that hitched in his throat and made his lips quiver. He was nearly panting against Riku' skin, and the hoarse sounds of the older boy's breath did nothing to make him feel better; it only made his toes curl behind Riku' back as he listened to those heavy sounds falling against his ear, knowing that he was responsible for the noises that broke out of the other boy.

The warring sensations brought a stammered protest to Sora's lips, and he strangled on it as he clutched the older boy's body closer, chanting Riku' name under his breath. He was barely aware that he was doing it, and he had no idea as to why, but he could not stop. Not even as his mouth sealed over Riku' neck and brought a heavenly groan to the older boy's lips could he drag himself down from the surreal high that made him mumble Riku' name against that perfect skin, over and over.

And then Riku was kissing him again, and not even that name was enough to break the pressure anymore. Sora's voice quietly shattered with the tiny moans that escaped him, but he couldn't hold them back as a searing mouth covered his own and coaxed more fire from him with each gentle stroke of Riku' tongue. He could barely return that kiss as he struggled to inhale, tilting his head back into the covers. His nails lightly scraped down Riku' back as they dragged across the length of the older boy's spine, and Sora seized those hips with both hands; destroying the gentleness with which Riku tried to touch him as Sora's legs tightened around his waist.

The waves were back in Sora's ears again, this time in the form of the uneven breaths that coursed out of Riku' lungs with that same, deep rhythm. It felt as though Sora's veins were knotting and twisting inside him; spiralling together with an impossible feeling that made his entire body shudder with the force of it. Still, it continued building until he could feel it thrumming in his abdomen, hard and fast. He couldn't even tell if he was still breathing anymore. His vision was sparkling like he had forgotten to inhale, his heart was pounding, but he didn't even care that he could have been suffocating as he arched his hips up again, feeling the sensation rising even higher than it had a moment – and then his mind was swept clean as a truly dizzying amount of pleasure burst inside of him without warning.

For just a split second the intensity was actually too much for him, as it seemed that there was going to be no promised release as he had expected; but then it broke, and he felt bliss shoot through his body. It scoured through him from head to toe and raced through every other inch in between. His mouth parted with a groaning sigh as he came, feeling a white-hot, crackling sort of sensation searing through his skin and bones, and Riku groaned hotly against his neck as new warmth joined the first.

Beyond that blinding static that made up his thoughts, Sora found the will to close his arms around Riku' body and hold him close in those last moments of gasping breaths, heaving chests and trembling fingers. Their bodies were still rocking together, driving new moans out of his mouth as his blood spiked, and he openly shivered as the older boy's hand slid into his hair in response, kneading against his scalp.

The pleasure slowly began to ease away as they lay there together, still holding onto the final moments of that release, but it did not fade completely. Instead, Sora's mind felt pleasantly numb and his skin was still dancing with heat as he finally managed to open his eyes again. He rolled over so that fingers slid into place around Riku' jaw, and he had to hold his breath once more as he moulded his mouth around the other boy's and kissed him until his lungs ached. He drowned in the feeling of Riku leaning into his body, gripping him with such incredible need that he almost spilled out every single thing he felt in an instant upon pulling his lips free from the other boy's, letting out a hoarse noise that he had not known he was capable of until that moment.

Riku' eyes shone with an unfathomable amount of feeling as Sora leant back, and abruptly he found that it no longer mattered that they had not known each other for long enough to rationally explain the feeling that was tightening in his chest, or that his family was going to separate them, because they were there and he had never been more sure of anything in his life than he did as he looked into the older boy's face, seeing every emotion he felt mirrored in those flawless features.

His lips parted again, his hands tugging Riku closer so that their foreheads rested together, but he never had a change to confess what he so longed to.

There was a deafening, groaning screech of metal that reverberated through the walls around them, slicing through his ecstatic daze with a precision that bordered on sharp pain, and both boys shot up from where they lay at that unending shriek that carried on for far longer than it should have. The bed lurched beneath them, yanking their bodies forward in a sickening way, and Sora's heart was pounding dangerously with a whole new sensation when the crushing sound finally cut short, leaving them both panting in the quiet that followed.

It was not quite silent, though; Sora could still hear the rushing of waves echoing in his ears.


	9. Chapter 9

Riku was out of bed in an instant, his hand skating over Sora's arm as he went and keeping that gentle contact as long as he possibly could, until the moment he actually stood from the edge of the mattress. Sora's muscles still felt liquid and warm, but he forced himself to sit up as he watched Riku moving over to the window at the very edge of the wall, trying to peer out of that small, darkened pane.

"I can't see anything," he said after a moment, his voice startlingly loud in the silence that had billowed between them. It achieved something close to calm, or at least the illusion of it, but there was an unfamiliar caution tightening in his voice as he stepped away again.

His face softened as he looked over his shoulder to meet Sora's, though, and beneath the worry in his gaze there still lingered the same beautiful look of adoration that had been there a few moments ago. It brought a familiar simmering of feeling into Sora's chest, and that only worsened when the older boy suddenly stepped back to the bed again, kneeling up on the edge of the mattress so that he could lean over. His hand slid over the nape of Sora's neck, fingertips gently running through his spikes as he easily pulled the younger boy's mouth forward to meet his own, tipping his head up a little as he knelt above him.

Sora sank into the kiss willingly, sighing deeply into the increasingly familiar warmth of Riku' mouth as he reached up to hold the other boy's face in his hands. They both let it continue for longer than it should have, lips moving together with an edge of urgency that would not otherwise have been present, but Riku' mouth was still gentle against Sora's, his hands were still caring with each touch that slid over his skin, and Sora couldn't bring himself to care how much time they wasted, so long as he could hold Riku against him as they did so. There was something indefinably wonderful about the way that the older boy was leaning into his touch, letting Sora cling to his waist as he bent his head to steal each new touch from his body.

When they did part, Riku did not go far. He was ever so slightly out of breath, his hands still slowly running through the thick tresses of Sora's hair, and his eyes were closed as he lifted his to inhale deeply. He remained there for several seconds, giving the younger boy a languorous look at the underside of his slightly stubbled jaw, before he dropped his eyes to meet Sora's again.

His mouth opened once, closed, and he sighed heavily without saying anything at all. His lips twitched into a slightly bemused smile as he stroked Sora's hair again, letting his fingertips drift to brush across his mouth, but the look seemed to be directed inward.

"We have to go," Sora guessed, when Riku made no explanation for his strange hesitancy, and the tiny smirk became a fleeting smile.

"That's not what I was going to say," the other boy told him softly, "but you are right about that." He ducked in to kiss the side of Sora's neck just once before he scooted away, shivering just a little as he bent down to retrieve some of the clothes that had been scattered on the floor earlier, tossing a few onto the bed as he did so without glancing back.

"What were you going to say?" Sora asked curiously, as he reluctantly tugged on a pair of trousers and shouldered his way into his crumpled shirt.

Riku' eyes were gleaming as looked back, whipping his own clothes on in a way that seemed far too practised. He paused for just a moment, shirt hanging open and exposing his chest, before he shook himself slightly and laughed.

"It can wait," he exclaimed in a strange tone, shrugging both shoulders, and then quickly buttoned up the majority of his shirt before he reached to take Sora's hand, tugging him out of the door as quickly as they could manage on boneless legs. He only managed to grab a few coats and tug them around both of their overheated bodies at the door before they were gone.

In another time, Sora might have been too worried to openly hold hands with another boy – even in the relative safety of his own suite – but he didn't even pay any thought to it as he slipped his fingers around Riku' for a better grip.

It didn't take long at all for them to stumble onto the deck – narrowly missing running headlong into one of the staff members that was hurriedly rushing in the other direction, whipping past them so fast that he nearly smacked into their faces without noticing – but the sight wasn't quite what would have been reassuring in that moment.

At first, it was only the buzzing of the staff that gave Sora pause, as he wondered what could have made them look so frantic. In the back of his mind, he might have assumed that something had gone wrong in the engine department, like a misplaced gear that might have ground against the rest of the cogs and caused some sort of disturbance and brought that screeching sound up from below. He had no other reference, of course, but that had been his first vague imagining before his own concern had pushed logic aside. However, he couldn't help but notice, gaze wheeling, that they didn't seem to moving at all anymore. The waves sounding in the background weren't the smooth glide of a ship slicing through the ocean; they were of icy water splashing against the side of the boat.

"What's going on?" Riku demanded, of the first man that paused close enough for him to be peppered with questions. "What happened to the ship?"

Around them, a dozen men in uniform were scurrying around on the walkways up ahead, throwing urgent words back and forth as they cluttered up the space that had recently been filled up with sunbathing socialites, just a few hours ago. Now, they looked – Sora's mind was cruel to suggest it – like rats scurrying away from a sinking ship, scuttling back and forth with a mindless frenzy.

The young worker seemed at a loss at first, and he nervously ran his fingers through his hair before he answered, dislodging his hat in the process. He didn't notice as it flopped to the ground at his heels. "There was," he began, and then paused to swallow thickly. "There was a berg, coming forward, but we didn't get out of the way – there was a fog, I think, no one could see it coming. It just—" He made a vague gesture with his hands, miming some sort of explosion.

"An iceberg?" Sora clarified, feeling somehow that the distinction was the most vital part of that swiftly spoken babble of an explanation.

The man only nodded, and then his head snapped on his shoulders as he whipped a glance over his shoulder. "I've got to go," he announced without preamble, and he was already hastening away before Riku could call after him, "Well, did we crash or not? What's going on? Hel—Oh, screw it."

Seemingly without care for anyone stopping them, the older boy did not hesitate to skip forward through the mass of people milling about as he made a beeline for the edge of the railing, where a few people were already leaning over the bannisters, necks craning for a look at whatever had happened to the ship. Riku was completely focussed on that spectacle, but as they jogged forward Sora's gaze snagged on the window of the function room that was a little to the side, visible through the different balconies and walkways that wound around the platform of the deck.

Past the fogged surface of the glass and the golden illumination that was streaming out through those large windows, he just caught a glimpse of the scene beyond – and he felt the strangest little jump in his midriff as he saw that there weren't people gathered at every inch of the glass there, peering through cupped hands to try and see what was going on. From what he could see, the majority of the upper class guests were still seated in their guests. As he watched, one of the tuxedo-clad men seated closest to them raised his hand for one of the serving staff to approach before he gesticulated toward the deck, pointing through the window as if he was asking about the style of the window adornments – and that, more than anything, made Sora's mouth fall open in pure confusion, before a lurch in the body beside his drew his attention back to the present.

The first thing he saw was the jagged metal protruding from the side of the vessel, twisted like melted plastic as it stood out from the side. It seemed that something had simply carved out a long welt into the hull of the ship, cutting through the metal and glass with as much ease as a claw through human flesh, and it looked strikingly like a deliberate attack, but for the hanks of ice that were bobbing in the water nearby. They were not melted in the freezing temperatures of that swelling water, and those tiny blocks of ice might have stunned him enough on their own for size, had it not been for the massive iceberg that thrust up from the ocean, much too close for comfort.

There was almost something impressive about it, Sora thought, and then jogged himself out of that bizarre thought as he clutched Riku a little bit closer than before. The older boy mindlessly shifted to stand directly in front of him, almost like he had some way of protecting Sora from the sight, but it was already too late to remove the sight of that hulking mass or the damage it had caused from either of their memories.

"Axel," was all Riku said, his voice stilled and empty with his concern, and it was all he needed to say. His eyes were wide with concern as he glanced over at the younger boy, wordlessly begging for the permission to drag him away, but Sora had already turned back in the direction of the stairwell, dragging Riku along with him as he did so. His own mind had flown to Roxas, wondering whether he had been correct in assuming that he had taken refuge in the same room as the rest of their friends, as well as to his mother. He wished he could have claimed that his concern was equally spread amongst his family, that he did fear for his father and the girl that could have been his fiancé, but he didn't.

Mostly, he thought about the feeling of Riku' hand curled around his own – and then he held it tighter, bringing that body as close as they could manage as they whipped through the doors, jogging down each flight of stairs toward the bowels of the ship.

The corridors were emptier than he would have expected; rather than coming across groups of people exiting their rooms, eyes wide and puzzled, they only bumped elbows with strangers as they rushed past. It was such that no one even paid a second glance to the two boys that were hastening down the hall, hands clamped at their sides and bodies pressed closer than any friends would have been comfortable with. Even so, there was something in the flickering of the lights in the halls, even the tension that lingered in the cold air that frayed Sora's nerves as they jogged along together.

"How bad do you think it is?" Sora asked, before he could himself. He didn't even bother to hide the anxiety in his voice; he felt no need to, if he was being honest with himself.

Riku gazed over at him silently for several seconds before he spoke, his voice just a low and controlled as Sora's own as they both fought to remain calm. "I don't know," he admitted, nervously. "I don't know how deep that went at all, or if any of the engines got taken out in the process, but… I don't think it's that good, either. They wouldn't be running all over the place like that if everything was normal." He paused. "Do you think it's going to stay upright, though?"

His question was deliberately vague, for which Sora was grateful; stating the possibility explicitly might have been too worrying for him in that moment. "I don't know," he said, in turn, and they only walked a little bit closer than before from then on.

That tiny room was even further into the ship than he remembered, and he tried to convince himself that he was imagining that the halls were becoming even colder with every level that they descended into the vessel. It helped that the goose bumps rising on the back of his neck felt more like fear than it did a chill, though it wasn't as reassuring as he might have wanted to be.

When they did make it down to the right floor, breathing more heavily from exertion and nerves alike, Sora could almost feel the way that the tension leeched out of the older boy's body beside him.

Riku was speaking before they'd really opened the door. "Axel, mate, you really have to—" He stopped short, standing in the threshold. "Oh."

The room was empty, the sheets on the beds thrown aside and clearly abandoned in a rush as the boys left. Riku' expression tautened slightly in concern, but it was of a different kind to the fevered look that had gripped him before as he considered the others trapped down there.

"They probably left when we did," he mused under his breath, his eyes going afar. "Axel wouldn't have wanted to stay under here with that racket going up there, and Leon would have taken them straight up to the deck the second it happened." A short laugh escaped his lips. "They probably showed up a little after we left, actually, because that would be the most frustratingly inconvenient thing that could possibly happen to us at the moment, wouldn't it?"

He shook himself out of his reverie a moment later, as if remembering where he was, and met Sora's expectant gaze with a sheepish apology.

"No, it's alright," Sora assured him, but his voice was distracted as he released the older boy's hand to step further into the room, noticing the familiar coat that was draped over the top bunk of the beds pressed up against the wall. He snorted out a startled laugh first, surprise quivering inside him at the sight of it, and then he couldn't help his own delighted grin as he pointed it out to Riku. "That's Roxas's," he explained, almost incredulously, and there was quiet fondness in Riku' eyes as he watched Sora's disbelieving reaction.

"No," he said dryly, "that's Axel's. The bed," he added, when Sora's expression lifted curiously, and he nodded his head toward the indicated bunk before he twisted his lips to the side, eyebrows waggling playfully. He seemed genuinely taken aback that Sora would look so startled by the realisation, and even amidst the relative calamity that was occurring around them, he huffed out a laugh.

Sora could only shake his head. "At least I know that he's with them," he joked weakly, with more relief than amusement as he came closer to tracking down at least one whereabouts he longed to be sure of.

"As much as I'd love to stay and find more evidence that I can use to embarrass them both later," Riku said archly, jerking a thumb over his shoulder, "I think we have a few more pressing concerns to deal with before we get to that. Moreover, I don't think they were stupid enough to leave more clothes than that lying around before they left the room. That, and Leon was right there beside them."

Absurdly, Sora let out another shocked laugh as he turned and pressed his face into the curve of the older boy's shoulder, breathing into the clothed edge of his shoulder as he felt a warm arm slip around his waist. He remained there for only a moment before he shook his head again, his hand slipping down to find Riku' as he swallowed his amusement and remembered that they were in a very serious situation, not a playful exploration of the hallways as he might have wanted it to be. The ship was damaged, possibly sinking, and he had forcibly reminded himself of that fact several times as the older boy's fingers slid between his own, his bright blue eyes silently coaxing him forward as they slipped out of the room.

"Figures, though, doesn't it?" Riku said wryly, as they walked back toward the stairs. "Of course they wouldn't be there when we just put ourselves out there trying to find them. Axel's terrible in a crisis, actually." His tone was affectionate, for the most part, but there was also and edge of concern lingering in his voice as he said it, a wistful smile curving his lips.

And, somehow, Sora knew to squeeze the other boy's hand in comfort. "He'll be fine," he assured him, and he felt slightly surprised by the confidence in his tone as he did so.

Riku seemed to, as well, but he only smiled his gratitude before he picked their pace up a little bit, walking more swiftly than usual as they crossed the first corner. "We should probably get up there with them."

"That was my thought, too," Sora muttered, trying for any lightness that he could manage.

"If there's an evacuation, I mean," the other boy continued, and Sora's heart leapt a little bit in his chest in response to the images that immediately flashed through his mind. "I don't know that we'll have to go to that," Riku added quickly, "but I think I'd rather be up there and looking like a paranoid idiot than sitting in the parlour saying everything's going to be fine."

Sora only nodded fervently. "Agreed, let's go."

This time, they both kicked into as close to a run as they could, leaping up the first staircase two steps at a time before they crossed into the next hall, the next ascension onto the upper levels - and were immediately assaulted by a swirling mass of noise and moving bodies at the end of that corridor.

They both slowed together, instantly shifting closer to one one another as they paused warily at the edge of the crowd, not yet able to understand the cacophony that was unfolding in front of them. There were people clamouring at the tiny alcove that led up onto the next hallway, beginning the path to the stairway itself, and there was an unmistakable note of panic and distress in the voices of the people that were shoving each other out of the way.

"What the fuck is going on?" Riku muttered under his breath, tugging Sora forward briefly as his brow creased into a frown.

It was only when they drew closer that they saw the staff member that was at the top of that alcove, struggling with a wire gate that protruded from the side of the wall there, ready to be drawn across. He was sweating heavily, his hands shaking and jangling the metal that he was trying to work with, and his entire face was so pallid that he looked physically ill as he stood there, fighting against the crowd that was shoving their way past him. A man pushed him out of the way first, followed by a woman with a bundle of a child clamped in her arms, and both boys watched in stunned bewilderment as the doorman pushed the others back so that he could continue pulling it shut.

Riku recovered before Sora did; perhaps his bitterness toward the upper class had more value than either of them had given him credit for, as his natural suspicion of the proceedings easily won out over Sora's blind incomprehension. He hadn't the experience to make him realise what they would be doing, how the people were being divided in a state of panic, rather than brought together in camaraderie.

"Come on," the older boy whispered urgently, and for the first time he was less than gentle with Sora as he yanked him forward, separating their hands so that he could push Sora forward from behind. His fingers gripped him by the shoulders, and Sora simply fought to keep from falling on his face as watched Riku pushed other people aside so that he could force them to the front of the crowd.

For a few chaotic moments, Sora was buffeted from side to side and jostled by a dozen unfamiliar hands as they struggled through the bodies crammed into that impossibly small space. He almost felt ashamed for how unnerved he was as they did; almost frightened by the people that pressed against him and made his body lock down with a claustrophobic panic. Had it not been for the fact that he could hear Riku muttering in his ear, the sound of his voice comforting even if the words were unintelligible with the raucous noise of the increasingly incensed group swimming around them, he probably would have tried to escape.

"What are you doing?" he demanded over his shoulder, trying vainly to find the older boy's ear as he was barrelled forward like a battering ram.

"They're closing the gates," Riku called back, lips pressing straight against the side of his ear as he held the younger boy tight. His voice was low and bitter. "Things are going bad here and they're sending the rest of us lowly commoners back down where we belong while they sort everything out – or, in other words, they're locking the rest of us down below while the elite get their life jackets on up top. It's—" His voice strangled with a dozen angry syllables at once, seemingly unable to control himself without disappearing into swear words again, and he merely vented his frustration on the man that tried to prevent their progress as he shoved the other aside, herding Sora into his place.

Sora's stomach rolled at the thought of what was happening, unable to believe that there would even be protocols or facilities to enable such absurd cruelty, but his horror soon faded in the wake of simple self-preservation as the rest of the people surged. He wasn't aware that there had been so many people there, but as they pushed forward he felt a genuine jolt of fear in response.

He barely got his hands forward in time before they smacked into the edge of the gate, unintentionally stopping the door in place before it could shut. The doorman's skin was even more sallow up close, his eyes showing their whites all the way around, and he looked almost deranged as he desperately tried to shut it again, rattling it against the hinges.

Riku' arm suddenly whipped over his shoulder, fingers shooting out to grip the edge of the gate, and Sora felt a familiar hand press against the small of his back a moment later, pushing him through the rapidly narrowing gap of that door. He reached back for Riku' arm as he stumbled over the exit, nearly tripping over his own feet as he tried to walk over the raised lip of doorway – but then something struck him from the side, hard.

Emboldened by the sight of Sora making it through, there was a sudden, almost animalistic protest from the back of the gathering. The spiky-haired lad didn't have time to straighten or regain his balance before another burly figure tried to force their way through the tiny gap, and he felt the wind leave his lungs as something smacked him hard in the gut, right beneath his stomach. His legs weakened as he hunched forward, trying vainly to inhale past the ache that suffocated him from the inside out.

But he never even got to regain his breath, as he was abruptly shoved to the side again, knocked backward. His feet slid out from beneath his body as he rocked backward, unbalanced, and he thought he might have heard Riku shout his name before something very hard and sharp slam into the back of his skull, obliterating all thought in one drowning wave of black.

—

"Sora."

He roused slowly, dragged through the fog of his own mind before he finally managed to peel his eyes back, blinking furiously. His skull felt strangely hollow, beating hard with a pain centred at the back of his skull, and it lurched sickeningly as he sat up with a jolt, causing his stomach to do the same. He felt nausea clawing at him, washing back and forth with what could have been the movement of the ship itself, and he had the intangible feeling that he'd been unconscious for far longer than it seemed. Something in the air had changed, he thought dully, as his mind wheeled again.

"Sora?" There was a flurry of sound somewhere above him, and he heard more than one curse sigh out in a familiar voice before Riku hissed, "Jesus Christ, you actually scared the life out of me, are you alright? Can you move? You were out so long, I swear I thought you were going into a coma or something."

There was another lot of cussing, in between fervent, relieved noises under the older boy's breath, and Sora had barely even opened his eyes as he asked, "What happened?"

He blinked furiously, and his surroundings were slow to come into focus as he stared at the sharp angle of the coffee table that jutted out above him. He felt something warm rising in the back of his throat at the sight of the fluid coating the very corner of that ornate surface, a few hairs standing out against the beige wall behind it, and he was not surprised when he lifted a hand to his head, finding that it came away sticky with blood. It was congealed, close to drying already, but it was thick enough to give him concern.

"You got knocked out," Riku told him bluntly, but the words were softened by the concern in his tone. "I think someone must have shoved you when they were trying to get through; I'm not really sure, I didn't see that much before…"

Sora's eyes were open, now, and his grogginess sharpened into awful clarity as he finally realised why the older boy's voice was echoing strangely over to him, rather than from the close distance that he had become used to receiving that familiar cadence. However, he was entirely sure that he would have rather retained his confusion as he blinked up to stare at the same gates that had now been fully drawn – with Riku standing on the wrong side of them, leaning against the bars as he stared through at Sora.

"Ri…"

"Are you sure you're not hurt?" Riku pressed. "You were out for so long - I swear, I don't even know… I don't know that much about head wounds, but I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to stay unconscious for that long. I don't even know how much time passed, but you were lying there and you wouldn't wake up, no matter what I did or how much noise I made and I thought that – I thought – oh, fucking hell, I give up," he murmured fervently, shaking his head. "We've got bigger problems than that, anyway."

Sora's mind was spinning, with more than the pain that was hammering at his skull and turning his brain into warm liquid, sloshing in his ears. "What's happening?" he asked warily, swaying as he fought to rise to his feet, nearly collapsing instantly. His eyes roamed over the bewildering sight of Riku on the other side of the barrier, because surely if he wasn't supposed to be over there; he was supposed to be with Sora, on the right side, and if he wasn't he wouldn't be standing there so calmly, talking as if everything was okay..

"Well," Riku said in an odd tone, still missing the point Sora was struggling to convey, "I think it's safe to say that the Titanic is not going to bounce back like they thought it was. I know," he added fervently, when the younger boy's head shot up on the other side, his eyes widening. Riku' voice was more serious as he continued. "But after that man locked this entrance up, the rest of the others rushed to beat him to the next one so that they could try and get up before they could stop 'em. I think a fair few managed to get up before they locked it up, but there could be more on the other side – I didn't go too far once I saw where they were going. I didn't leave for that long, either, not with you there – are you sure you're alright?" he asked suddenly, worry leaking back into his tone as he peered over at Sora's pale face. He seemed unable to help himself.

However, the younger boy had less concern for his own fate, as he truly saw the gate for the first time, dread clenching his stomach inside him. "Riku…"

The older boy merely looked puzzled. "What's wrong?" he asked, and then quickly moved past his own question as he focussed once more. "Look, you've got to get back upstairs so that they can look after that for you. There are lifeboats up there that can take us out, get us off this, so you need to head up and find the others so that they can help you out. You might have a concussion, so make sure that you mention that before you start jumping around anywhere – and be careful." He was babbling now. "Don't get too panicked, they'll definitely look out for you while you're up there and don't listen to anyone else up there that tries to get you out of that place, you need to put aside being nice for a little while. Be as mean as you can."

"Riku, why are you saying this?" Sora demanded fearfully, stepping forward. His words were soft as he swallowed back his sudden terror, his hands curling around the bars of the gate as he tugged at them, testing for resistance. "How does this open? How do we get this open?" Riku tried to speak again, comprehension lighting in his features, but Sora couldn't silence himself as he muttered, "No, because if you're standing on that side, and this whole thing is going… if you're stuck over there for…"

It was too cruel, he thought wildly; the last divide between them, the distinction that he had almost forgotten about finally severing their connection as effectively as it could, as Riku was irrevocably banished for being of a lower class than Sora. He couldn't even consider the ending to his own sentence, as he strangled on the hard lump in his throat and jerked at the metal again.

Then, "No, no!" Riku exclaimed, adding a breathless laugh as he reached over to lay his cold fingers over Sora's, squeezing reassuringly around the bars. "I was just waiting for you to wake up, while you were on the other side." He jerked a shaky thumb over his shoulder. "Last time we were down here, Leon showed me a shortcut up to the kitchens for the staff; it's just this tiny little service staircase around the back, so that you don't have to cut through a lot of people." He laughed again, like he couldn't stop himself from doing so. "I can get right up to the deck in no time, don't worry, I just didn't want to leave you there, in case you woke up while I was gone and I didn't have time to get there. I didn't want to lose you – but I'm fine, I can get out."

Sora thought he might actually collapse with the relief he felt at those words – in fact, he had to cling to the gate again as his legs shook and his mind span helplessly.

"If you're alright to walk," the older boy continued urgently, "go find Axel and the others and I'll meet you up there in a few minutes. If you're alright," he stressed, eyes widening with a truly stunning amount of concern. "I'll find some other way through if you don't think that you can—"

"No, I'm fine," Sora interrupted, shaking his aching head. "I can go. But are you sure you can get back up? I can go and find one of the staff with the keys, get them to open this back up so you can come up this way."

Riku' shoulders twitched in a shrug. "He's probably already gone – besides, I've already checked the stairs and they're open. It's a bit of a squeeze, to be honest, but it's still better than nothing so I'm not about to complain. Look, go," he urged suddenly, fingers tightening around Sora's once more before he withdrew his hand, taking one step away from the gates. "I'll see you back up top – save a seat for me, alright?" His face was hard with anxiety, his features tautened to the point of pain, but he still summoned a smile for the younger boy as he waved him along, fluttering a hand at him as he stepped away.

"Go," he laughed, when Sora hesitated at the top of that step, eyes reluctantly flickering between the hall he was in and the one that he would have vastly preferred to occupy right then. "Or neither of us will be able to go."

Sora's expression contorted with indecision once more, but he managed to shuffle back a few steps in response to the encouraging look that was fighting its way past the tension in Riku' face. "I'll see you soon," he promised fervently, as he slowly retreated away from the gates. His eyes burned as he tried to drag them away from that wonderful face, as unwillingly to leave as the rest of his body was, and he only managed to yank them back when he squeezed his eyelids tightly shut completely, forcing himself to stagger away.

"Of course," he heard Riku say after him, voice softer than before, and even just the sound of it put another cruel wave of barbs into Sora's chest as he kept going.

He could barely manage to keep any sort of coherency about his mind as he trudged ahead, trying to reconcile the situation with anything that he knew about his life. He couldn't understand how things had progressed so quickly, from that wonderful morning to the icy hell that he was in now, jogging along the halls of a sinking ship with the boy he loved disappearing into another part of that boat without him. He tried to think of where the other boys would be on the deck, if they hadn't immediately been brought up with the rest of the staff to try and help people, but he could think of nothing beyond the memory of that massive, frozen crater protruding from the front of the ship, looming over them in the darkness. Beyond that, his eyes were painted with the sight of Riku standing behind those bars, his ears ringing with the same white noise that had been there since he woke up, and as he lifted a hand to probe at the throbbing lump at the back of his skull, a part of his mind tried to picture Riku scrambling up those narrow steps, probably going around and around in…

His thought stopped dead, and he didn't even make it to the first corner before the rest of him followed suit.

They weren't anywhere near the kitchens, not even close – not even somewhere vaguely below them, where a narrow passage might have been able to wind straight up through the floors for convenience.

His steps slowed first, his numb feet shuffling to a standstill as the rest of his body lurched once, swaying to the side as absolute dread settled around his entire body. He had to reach out for the wall to steady himself before he could even suck in an even breath, inhaling as slowly as he could force upon himself, and he was still struggling not to hyperventilate as he slowly turned on the spot to go back the way he had come.

He could feel each individual jolt that went through his body as he walked back, each unsteady beat of the heart that slammed up against his sternum, every tiny movement that was making his hands dangle uselessly at his sides while his body moved along of its own volition. Like a clock ticking in the background, his own pulse seemed to be timing him as he made his way back to that same grate, feeling his way toward the turn in the floor as he fought the dizziness sparkling at his eyes.

Riku was still there.

The older boy's body was sprawled on the ground in that depression, taking up as much of the space there as he could, and his posture made it clear that he had simply sat down from where he was standing a moment ago, promising Sora that he was going to leave the second he was gone. His expression was still, his eyes staring emptily at the beige plaster of the wall opposite him.

"When did Leon tell you about the shortcut?"

Instantly, Riku shot to his feet as Sora came back into view. Alarm momentarily flickered into his features, chasing away the smile that now soured in the younger boy's memory, but he managed to push it out of sight as he bewilderedly asked, "Sora? What are you doing? You have to go, get up there! Axel and Leon and Roxas—"

"Tell me where it is, exactly." Sora's voice was shaking. "Tell me how many levels it goes up to, and where it comes out in the kitchens."

"Sora…"

Now, the rest of him was shaking, too. "Tell me what you were doing when he told you about it," he continued in a low voice, but despite his efforts to make his voice hard, it still sounded like he was begging for the information rather than demanding. "Tell me why you didn't tell the others about it, when they were trying to get through and just tell me that it's there, that you didn't – Riku, please—" His breath was too shallow, making it hard to get the words out. "—tell me that it's really there, that you're not… that you can get out."

"Of course I can! I was trying to make sure you weren't going to collapse on the way out, you idiot! I was just—" His voice choked, cracking beneath the strain of the cheerful tone he tried to adopt, and he faltered for just a moment before he tried again, twisting his mouth into a smile. "If I'd known you were going to be this much trouble to look after, I would've left you up top rather than bringing you back down here."

Sora only stared, hearing his breath whistle in an out of his mouth. Every inch of his body was prickling uncomfortably, his clammy hands contorting at his sides, but his eyes were open and unblinking as he stared through the metal gates into those that were so wide and earnest in return, eyelashes fluttering.

"Riku," was all he said, nearly a whisper, and the older boy gave a jerky smile in response.

"I'd show you if I could," he claimed, glancing back over his shoulder under the guise of looking back down the length of the hall, "it's just a little far for you to crane your neck at the moment." When he rocked back, it was with another smile that made Sora's chest ache – and the other boy's mouth trembled with that grin as his eyes met Sora's again, jaw jumping, teeth clenching and throat tensing with the words that he forced past his lips.

This time, Sora couldn't even speak.

"It's fine," Riku insisted, but his voice broke on the word as he looked desperately into the younger boy's ashy features. "I promise, just 'cause you can't see it from here doesn't mean that it's not—it doesn't mean that there isn't—" He stuttered to a stop, breathing deeply, and his head hung forward briefly as he fought for control of himself. When he lifted it again, his eyes were glistening. "It's right there," he whispered, smiling even as the tears brimmed over, splashing onto his skin before he could reach up to dash them away with his fingertips. "I swear, I'll be right up after you. But you – you have to go now, alright? You have to run right up there and meet the others, and I'll be up in a second. Just… go."

As he fell silent, Riku carefully lifted both of his hands so that they just barely brushed against the bars of the gate, quivering fingertips running over the metal like a caress. His long lashes were beaded with tears as he blinked, staring at Sora with as much urgency as there was feigned calm, and his eyebrows lifted expectantly as his mouth parted again, without sound.

There was a long, aching moment of silence then, as Sora watched the last vestiges of pretence melt away from the older boy's features. His wide smile faded away first, falling from his lips and leaving them a sickly grey colour, and his entire face slipped back into a weary mask that was only made up of sadness and an awful, endless acceptance. His eyes were quietly resigned, even a little sympathetic as he watched the comprehension settling into Sora's expression, and he didn't bother to try and stop the fresh tears that trickled from the corners.

He jumped when Sora's hands slammed against the grate, long fingers seizing the bars in both hands and rattling them; experimentally, at first, and then with enough force to rock his entire body back and forth. "Come on." It shook noisily back and forth in its cradle, but Sora quickly released that clenching hold when it didn't immediately come apart, moving instead to inspect the locked clasp on the side.

"Sora," Riku said quietly, almost chiding him, but the younger boy ignored him completely.

"There has to be a way to open this," he murmured, staring at what little he could see of the latch. Then, he took two uneven steps backward and kicked his heel out at the door, aiming for the lock as much as he could. The metal clanged, vibrating with the blow, but the gate remained frustratingly intact as Sora stumbled back a step, lips firming into a thin line. He kicked out again, once, twice; each time, the impact jarred up his leg and nearly threatened to knock him to the ground, but the gate was not visibly damaged.

Before he could prepare himself for a third attempt, Riku' voice whipped out, harder than it was before. "Sora, stop it. Sora. Sora, I – I've already tried that!" he exclaimed suddenly, his voice nearing exasperation, but he began to trail off nearly as soon as an ounce of passion leaked into his tone. "I've already tried that," he repeated, less loudly. "It's not going to budge, I did that the entire time you were out – it's too strong."

"Well, then, we get someone to unlock it," Sora muttered swiftly, and then turned his head to bellow, "HELP! WE NEED SOME HELP DOWN HERE!"

"There's no one there, Sora."

"There is," he growled, fiercely, and then snatched at the bars again, shaking them back and forth like he could really do some sort of damage to it. He kept on yanking at them even as his shoulders began to ache and his arms twinged in protest, his neck firing with all sorts of pain at the base of his skull, and he didn't let up even as Riku chanted his name, becoming more frantic with each repetition until he was nearly shouting at the younger boy to stop.

"I know you're there!" Sora yelled, desperately. "I NEED HELP!"

"Calm down!"

"PLEASE! PLEA—Please, come and help us!" he wheezed, running out of oxygen before he could finish the word. His head was spinning again, his vision sparkling with more than the tears that clouded over his eyes and turned the bars into a blur in front of his hands. "Just – unlock the door! Please – HELP! SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! PLEASE JU-just…"

He stammered himself into silence as he felt Riku' fingers touch his own, curling around his hands were they were gripping the bars, hard enough to turn his flesh stark white, purpling around the edges. Riku' hands were still shaking a bit, but there were gentle as they slid around Sora's, silencing him within just a few short seconds as he stroked at his skin, over and over. His thumbs continued to slide back and forth in a soft caress as Sora dragged his eyes up to meet Riku' again, his expression crumpling with despair. He gasped softly as he looked into the older boy's face, panic gripping his heart in a vice, and his entire body shuddered with that sharp breath.

Riku didn't say a word; he only bent his head forward and pressed his trembling lips to Sora's knuckles, carefully kissing the shaking edge of his fingers, and he lingered there for several long seconds before he straightened again, sniffing a bit.

"I've already tried that," he repeated softly, after a moment, and his tone was almost matter-of-fact. "Anyone that's not already gone will be soon; they all ran out within seconds, and the rest aren't going to stay down here for the fun of it. No one's gonna come and unlock it, and I've already tried picking it open, but…" He lowered his eyes, exhaling slowly. "There's pretty much no use at this point."

"Then we find another way through," Sora suggested, wildly. "There's got to be another way, around the engines, maybe—"

"They're already cut off, I checked."

"Another gate, then, maybe one of the others—"

"They were all blocked off a little bit after this one – or are they are by this point, so it doesn't matter. It's already too late."

Real anger flared in Sora's chest, and he wrenched his hands out of Riku' soft grasp as he jerked back and kicked at the gate, bashing it over and over until he could breathe past the tightness in his throat. "It's – not – too – late," he gasped, attacking the metal with fists as well when it wasn't enough to fight against his own despair. He was breathing too heavily, his fists aching where they'd hit the bars, but Riku was quiet as he hissed, "There has to be something else – there has to be. They wouldn't just lock people down like this, they wouldn't – there's some other way, you just have to look. There's got to be other – the other levels, will have something, too, you can check—"

"I can't," Riku whispered helplessly.

Sora's mouth fell open. "Why?" he demanded, the word softened at the edges by his confusion. "Why can't you? Why aren't you even trying? Come on, Riku, you just have to—"

"Water's coming in, Sora," the older boy breathed, weakly.

The alcove around the gate was small enough that, with Riku' body sprawled out across that space, Sora hadn't yet thought to look over boy's shoulder at the hall beyond. Even when he had been staring out after his fictitious escape route, Sora had been more focussed on the boy's face than anything else – and so he'd not seen the floor growing wet with water, filling up in the background while he'd been throwing himself at a gate that would not give out beneath his weight. It had only reached the bottom step where Riku stood, but he could already see new trickles of liquid creeping up the next stair – and the sight stole the breath from his lungs, slamming into him and threatening to bring him to his knees in an instant.

"No," he protested, blinded by tears once more as he shook his head. "No, there's something else – there's another way out of here."

"There isn't," Riku hissed. Hopelessness was written in every inch of his expression, plain in the lines of his tensed body as he leaned forward to try and catch the younger boy's attention again, but his voice hardened in determination as he quietly said, "So you need to get out of here, right now."

Sora's breath hitched. "What?" he replied, utterly lost.

"You have to turn around," Riku murmured softly, "and you have to go up those stairs, find the others, and you have to stay there until the rescue boats come down to help you, alright?"

"What?" the younger boy repeated, with more confusion than the last time. He was actually incapable of comprehending the clear meaning that Riku was trying to spell out for him; if he did, he wouldn't have been able to last even another moment without dashing his own brains out on the bars. "No," he whispered, reaching through to press Riku' fingers into his own again. "Are you insane? I'm not going anywhere! We'll find something else, we will!"

The water had gained another step, now.

Riku' face was hard to look at, as he pinched his lips and very slowly shook his head in denial. "No," he said calmly, his throat rippling with another hard swallow. However, as his eyes bored into Sora's, it seemed that something flickered deep beneath his features. His fingers slipped away from the other boy's briefly, as a long, shivering sigh shook through his body, and his eyes flicked upward once as he turned and braced his body against the side wall of the alcove. His body slumped weakly like he could no longer find the strength to hold it up.

"Sora," he said, in a voice that keened and choked with desperation, and he struggled to catch his breath as he spoke. His eyes were still wet as he turned his head to meet the younger boy's gaze. "If you stay there… you are going to drown. And I can't have that," he added, slightly hysterically, "so can you please just turn around and walk back up those stairs and pretend that I'm going to come up after you, because that is the only thing that's – it's the only way I can stand here without losing my mind is if you just leave, so please – please go." He was barely coherent anymore. "Please, Sora, please, please get out of here, you don't – you don't have to be here."

"No," the other boy burst out, uncontrollably. "No! I am going to get you out of there!"

"You can't! I'm stuck here, alright? You know that! Look at this!" Now Riku grabbed the bars, rattling them once or twice before he flung himself away, as if disgusted by the cold kiss of the metal on his skin. "You think I haven't tried that? You think I'd be saying this if I thought there was any chance I could make it out of here? There is nothing you can do, so just get out of here – I am begging you, here, please. It's already too late, so just go! Now!"

"But I can't!" Sora's knees buckled a little with those words, his voice becoming nearly inaudible as it wrenched in his throat. His heart was beating painfully hard, and he could feel the real fear setting in, seeping over the nape of his neck and turning his body cold. "Oh god," he gasped, tugging weakly at the bars again. His eyes were wide and scared, constantly leaking as he blinked feverously. "No, I'll—there's something, there has to be. I'm not leaving you."

Riku' eyes squeezed shut for a moment, like he couldn't stand the sight of the younger boy. "No, please don't," he pleaded, shaking his head. "Please don't do that. There is no point in…"

With a small groan of frustration, Riku suddenly slumped so that his entire body lined up with the gate for a few brief seconds, metal digging into his forehead. He ground something out under his breath, too low for Sora to hear, but it sounded more like a hoarse growl that anything else.

But, when Riku didn't move for several seconds, eyes heavily lidded, Sora carefully moved around and mirrored the older boy's position on the other side of the grating. If only to have the illusion of closeness, snatching at whatever contact he could still manage with him; he tentatively pressed himself opposite Riku, stepping closer as much as he possibly could without crushing hard bruises into his flesh. His clutching fingertips grazed at Riku', making him stutter on a pained gasp as the older boy's hand turned into his own, his head lifting so that his swimming, desolate eyes were only centimetres from Sora's. Their quivering breaths melded for a moment, vibrating the air together, and Sora could nearly feel some of the lingering warmth emanating from Riku' body where it was so painfully close to touching his own.

Slowly, Riku shifted his hand to let his fingers touch Sora's mouth, brushing against the cool skin there – before he abruptly wrenched himself away, heaving breaths huffing in and out of his nose as he swayed on his feet.

And, to shatter the other boy's heart even further, Riku slowly slid down back against the wall, splashing slightly as his foot slipped to the side and landed in the puddle there. Turning on the side, his body arched so that his shoulder braced against the bars themselves, fingers curling loosely around the metal, and his mouth parted as he drew in one shaky breath after another, visibly fighting down his own fear.

Sora wanted to do something to help – he wanted to do anything. He wanted to stretch his arms through those bars until his skin rubbed raw and yank Riku' body through the tiny gaps available to them. He wanted to bend the metal with his bare hands; to beat at it until it came apart at non-existent hinges, bursting open so that he could lean down and tug the other boy's body into his, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him tight. He wanted to stop crying and do something useful. He wanted to scream. He wanted to stuff his own frame through the gate, just so that he could be on the other side and hold Riku close, no matter if the water was too cold around their ankles. He wanted to kiss him again - even the mental image of it brought a sob to Sora's throat, suffocating him.

But there was nothing. There was hollow panic and a terror that seized in his bones more than the cold did and there was the slow, inexorable realisation that Riku was right, and there was nothing he could do to help.

So, instead, he turned and sat down on the ground, collapsing there not a moment too soon.

"What are you doing?" Riku asked immediately, in a tight voice. His eyes were still wet and bloodshot, just like Sora's were, but they became almost wary as they watched Sora carefully positioning himself down to sit opposite the older boy.

Sora's only reply was to settle himself down, stretching his legs out, but it had more of a reaction than anything else so far.

Riku had remained stoic at the beginning, strapping on a grin and a wink while he lied his way into a lonely death underwater; he had been able to keep a straight face while he ordered Sora to get away from him, to leave him behind, and he had been controlled while he acknowledged his own imminent death – but watching the younger boy sink down on the other side of that gate, tears openly dripping from his chin, was the last straw.

"No," he moaned, and the protest was followed by a soft, keening noise that escaped his lips as he brought his hands up to his face again, pressing them hard against his eyes. "No, I don't want you here for this – you can't stay here." His fingernails raked against his cheeks, scoring red welts into his skin. "You can't be here," he repeated, over and over; chanting it nearly inaudibly as a broken sob burst out of his chest, unbidden.

"This isn't a joke," Riku rasped suddenly, dropping his hands into his lap as his heartbreaking gaze pierced Sora's. "Don't you get that? It's not some heroic moment or some love story gone wrong, alright? This is not a matter of selflessness or anything like that. You are not going to sit there and watch - I won't let you. So, please—" The word contorted his entire body, dragging it forward as he gripped the bars, nearly breaking his own fingers with that twisted hold. "—get out, because you are not going to sit there and die."

"And you?" Sora's voice was soft, his lips trembling.

"Th-that's not—"

"What about you?" the younger boy pressed, his deep voice hitching in all the wrong places. His eyes were bright green beneath the sheen of his tears. "When – when that water rises, what's going to happen to you? You can lie to me all you want, Riku; you can look me in the eye and tell me that everything's going to be fine, but…" His throat closed, nearly ruining him in an instant of choking sobs and shaking fingertips. "… but the ship's going down anyway – and I don't think I want to be anywhere else right now, other than here, so it doesn't really matter what you want."

"You're going to die!"

"I don't care!" Sora shot back, barking the words so loudly that he startled even himself. Riku' expression froze in that same horrified look, and his chest was shuddering with suppressed cries as fell back against the wall, arching backward like he was trying to escape through willpower alone. Sora stared at the exposed line of his throat as he managed, "I'm not leaving you, Riku. I can't."

"You can," Riku groaned softly, his expression crumpling again. "And if you actually cared about me at all, you would."

There weren't words for the heartbreak that Sora felt then, looking into the older boy's face, his skin gleaming with tears and panicked sweat and moisture from the water that he'd splashed up onto him. He felt completely hollow, yet at the same time it seemed that his skin should burst from the horrible, terrifying swirl of emotions that roiled inside him.

He had to clear his throat before he spoke, but it did nothing for the coarse rasp that fell from his mouth. "Well that's just not true, is it?" he mumbled, sniffling. His chest was so constricted that it was agony to even breathe in, let alone speak the words that made the pain even worse. "Because…" A swift breath, sucked in through his teeth before it was sighed back out. "Because I love you, and I'm still here, aren't I?"

The second he managed to say it, he folded his lips to keep from choking, the scene dissolving as his eyes welled up and emptied out all over again.

He heard only a soft sound from Riku at first, somewhere between a strangled moan and a sob, but then it was followed by another, until Sora had to scrub the tears from his eyes so that he could catch a glimpse of the other boy.

Riku had his hands pressed flat against his face, his entire body shaking from head to toe, and it took a moment for Sora to recognise the noises that were slipping out between his clenched teeth.

"Are you… are you laughing?"

"No," Riku replied instantly, nearly unintelligibly, but when he peered out from beneath his hands his mouth was set in a pathetic parody of a smile as another bout of macabre laughter forced its way out of him. His chest was heaving with the force of it, and it took several moments for it to abate so that he could choke out, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, it's just—" He lost himself again, sobbing out that absurd laughter again so that his head lolled against the wall.

And, somehow, Sora coughed out a few irrepressible chuckles himself. He didn't even know why, but his head was detached from his body, his mind detached from reason – and even in that moment, in that place, the sound of the other boy's laughter still brought a fluttering sensation to his stomach, a smile to his face.

"I'm sorry," Riku wheezed again, and he suddenly shuffled onto his hands and knees, scooting around so that he was sitting side by side with Sora, rather than opposite him. He was still trembling with laughter as he thumped into place, tilting his head close enough that Sora received his first clear look at the older boy's face in the few inches between their faces. "It's not funny at all – this is least funny thing that's ever happened to me, but… I met you four days ago – just four days - and the ship is sinking, and I'm… I'm going to die… probably soon, but for a second there, I was actually just really happy that you said that, and I think that's the most pathetic, depressing thing that I've ever heard in my entire life." He finally stopped laughing, his voice strangely empty like he was talking about someone else. An odd smile bent his lips as he lifted his eyes to meet Sora's, staring at the face that was so near to his own, and his voice was soft as he asked, "Isn't that just ridiculous?"

Sora watched a drop of water rolling down the side of Riku' face, sliding down until it dripped straight into his lap. He only nodded, mutely, and Riku turned his face away again for several moments as he inhaled deeply, eyes closed so that he almost looked peaceful. The water was lapping against his step now, gently splashing against his trousers.

Finally, Riku simply sighed and slipped his hand through the bars, awkwardly twisting his wrist so that he could hold his shaking palm out to the younger boy. It took a moment, but Sora reached up to hold it in both of his own, tightly winding their fingers together and wrapping them all the way around, touching as much of that cold skin as he could.

A long moment stretched out between them, silent but for the sounds of rushing water, and Sora stared at their entwined hands as he mindlessly played with the older boy's skin.

Then, "You need to go."

Sora shook his head, eyes fixed on their hands.

"You know you need to go," Riku continued, very softly, "don't you? It's already done, now, there's nothing you can do but get yourself to safety, like you're supposed to do. And that's not a bad thing; it's the best thing you could ever do for me."

"Shut up, Riku."

"There are people jumping out of windows trying to get out of this, Sora," the older boy murmured, and his voice was so serious that it made Sora's blood turn to ice. "Your mum's out there somewhere, worrying about you."

Sora closed his eyes, sending new tears sheeting down his face. "Stop it."

"She'll miss you more than anything, if you stay here. Do you know what a waste that is?" Gently, Riku extracted his fingers from Sora's and lifted them to carefully stroke the edge of Sora's hair, moulding his hand to the younger boy's jaw as best as he could and holding his gaze when Sora tried to look away. "You can't do this," he whispered, despair drenching his voice all over again. There was no longer any laughter in his eyes, not a single hint of childish fear or terror in the way that he was staring into Sora's eyes like he was the one in danger, rather than Riku. "You can't do this to her, to Roxas… to me. I love you for trying – I really do – but I can't let you do it. And I'm… Let's face it, love, I'm already…" His thumb caressed Sora's cheek, back and forth, and neither of them needed him to finish that sentence.

The younger boy was silent for a time, but his brain screaming at him in the stillness of that second, thousands of thoughts vying for his focus with none of them penetrating his own stunned daze.

Then, he exhaled heavily, letting out a breath he had held deliberately, trying not to even breathe in case it would disturb the feeling of Riku' fingers stroking his skin. "I can't," he said, simply, staring past Riku' face at the water that was climbing even higher with every second. His breath was quickening again, his heart beating harder as panic began to creep back to paint his senses with a searing white agony. "I can't do it, I'm sorry."

Riku looked pained.

His eyes squeezed shut, his entire body slumping as if Sora had stolen something vital from him with that broken admission, and the younger boy stared at the creased outsides of Riku' eyelids as the other boy breathed, in an out.

He knew he shouldn't have, but Sora couldn't help himself as he pressed the other boy's hand to his face, kissing his palm softly before he simply said, "You're not going to die alone, at least."

The sound that echoed in Riku' chest seemed to buzz in Sora's, too, but it could have been assent or protest or simple distress once more, as the older boy's fingertips held Sora's skin more tightly, digging beneath his jaw with a painlessly strong hold that the younger boy leaned into willingly. Riku swallowed audibly, and then his mouth opened again, his chest lifting—

"Sora? Sora, Riku, are you here?"

Instantly, Riku snatched his hand back, clanging his wrist against the bars in his haste to rise to his feet in response to that familiar, concerned voice.

"Can anyone hear me? Is anyone down here? Sora! Riku! Hello?"

Accompanied by the thudding of jogging footsteps on hard floors, Roxas's voice was bent in such worry that a wholly different kind of ache sprang up in Sora's chest to overlay the first – and, abruptly, it all became real again. He wasn't lovingly breathing in the smell of Riku' skin or enjoying the touch against his own. As he shot to his feet, he saw with fresh eyes how Riku was trapped on that side, the water, and the reality of their situation made his stomach swoop with chilling fear as he stumbled back up into the hall, wheeling his arms wildly.

"Roxas!" he shouted, voice squeaking with hysteria. "Roxas, please, you have to help—"

"Roxas!" Riku joined in, his distinctive tone slicing straight through Sora's and cutting him off as the younger boy was startled to silence. Already, Sora could see the confusion in Roxas's face as the other boy ran ahead, smoothly sprinting across the length of the corridor until he was right there, barrelling straight into Sora's arms and yanking him a tight embrace that threatened to shatter the younger boy's fragile body.

"Oh, thank god," he chanted in a low voice, nearly delirious with relief, and his hands stroked Sora's hair, his back, his arms before he finally pulled away, rambling uncontrollably. "We went all up and down the other levels but we couldn't see any sign—" He stopped dead when he saw Riku, his mouth dropping open in a truly horrified expression as he caught sight of the gate, the bars between the older boy's fingers. "Oh god, you're – how?" he asked dizzily, eyes bugging out as they flitted between the others' faces. "What happened? How did he—"

"They were locking all the gates," Sora explained breathlessly, struggling to keep his voice even. "I got knocked out, and they were all swarming at the man that was trying to close the door on them, and somehow Riku got pushed back before the rest of them—" He had to pause to gasp in another breath before he would pass out, feeling wave upon wave of fresh fear piling over his skin and bubbling in his blood.

But Roxas wasn't listening to him anymore.

Sora's voice trailed off into nothingness as he noticed that his friend's gaze was bleeding in front of him, searing with a terrifying guilt and sadness where it had travelled over Sora's shoulder to meet Riku', instead. The younger boy was slow to turn on one heel, glancing between the two that seemed to be caught in some sort of silent communication, and he wasn't fast enough to catch onto the obvious message that wordlessly passing between them until it was already too late. It was only when Riku' eyes flickered to him, filled with an unfathomable amount of sorrow, that he realised what was about to happen.

"No," he said, blankly, and then with much more feeling, "No!"

He immediately lurched toward Riku the second he could force his limbs to move, his grasping fingers reaching for the metal bars to anchor himself, but they clenched around nothing but air as a strong arm slipped into place around his waist, jerking him backward before he could do anything.

"Don't touch me," he growled into his best friend's face, venom dripping from his tone, and he thrashed in frenzy as he tried to break from the grip that had closed around his arms, too, nearly pinning them to his sides. "Let me – Let me go, Roxas!"

"I'm sorry." The apology came from both of the boys as they watched Sora struggle, fighting against Roxas's protective embrace as he was slowly, yet inexorably, pulled away from the gates.

Sora's fingers plucked at Roxas's hands, mercilessly scratching at his flesh until strips of skin came off beneath his scrabbling fingernails, but his friend's arms didn't let up as he continued dragging him away, bit by bit. His apologies were ceaseless as he muttered them under his breath, directed to anyone and everyone that was there to witness them being spoken; he seemed to take his own comfort from saying them, he feebly whispered it to the boy that he was leaving behind and he begged forgiveness from the life that he was about to save – from the one person that they all knew would never forgive him.

"No, Riku, don't do this," Sora whimpered, desperately, as he strained against Roxas's grasp like he was about to throw himself straight through the blockade and into the other boy's arms. It was even worse than before; every rapid heartbeat that thundered in his ears brought a new weight to him, a new gravity of the situation that was wheeling out of control, and it was suddenly stark cold reality that gripped him in a vice, as he stared into Riku' eyes, trapped behind that barrier.

And suddenly Sora was absolutely petrified.

Because even as he promised to sit there until the end, professing his love like you were all supposed to before you died, just in case, Riku had been right in a way; there had still been a part of him that fully expected Roxas to come along, to bash open the gates or bring a key with him. With a childish faith that was going to be the end of him, he had expected things to work out well, and it was only in that very second that he abruptly realised that it wasn't, that the door wasn't going to open. They wouldn't make it out of there together, he wouldn't ever hold the other boy again or even feel any of the warmth that had filled him earlier that night – his body was cold, now, and it always would be. He wouldn't even get to throw himself into death after him, the overwhelming amount of feeling he had for the other boy beating on in his heart until it stopped for good.

The lock would remain fast, the hallway would flood with water and Riku would die choking – and that was all there was to the situation.

"No, no, no," Sora gasped, great sobs ripping out of chest and leaving him breathless. "No, please, please." He was begging now, openly bawling as tears splashed out of his eyes and his insides snapped into an unbearably tight knot, nearly making him throw up as his body rebelled against the inevitable. "Please, please, Riku, you can't do this – please, just let me stay, don't do this, I don't want to get out of this, I don't care—"

"I'm sorry, Sora," Riku breathed, his voice tortured.

The younger boy gagged a little on the force of his own sobs, crying so loudly that his own ears burned at the volume of it, and he felt like he was suffocating as he mindlessly rammed his elbow backward into Roxas's stomach, winding him. The other boy's tight grip slackened for an instant as the air was knocked from his lungs, and Sora's knees slammed into the floor as he broke free momentarily, collapsing without the other boy's hands to hold his shuddering body in place. He scrambled forward instantly, though, and he came so close to snatching a handhold on the bars that it was real, physical torment when Roxas's hands scooped him up again, halting his progress.

"Get him out!" Riku ordered, nearly shouting the words as he thrust his hand sideways, beating at the bars that held him back in his frustration. "Please, Roxas, hurry – please, get him out of here, just get him away from here!" He was crying too, gripping the metal to keep himself up as he sobbed quietly, but Sora was horrified to hear that there was relief in the sounds – he smiled as he cried, coughing out barks of laughter in between desperate gulps of air. His hand pressed flat against his chest as he stumbled back down the steps, submersing himself up to the waist as he fell back into the rising water, but his expression was filled with torn, tortured happiness rather than anything else.

"I'm sorry!" Riku staggered uncontrollably as he rushed forward again, fighting against the pull of the water and sending it sloshing through the bars as he climbed the steps, shuddering violently from head to toe. His lips were tinged with blue, teeth chattering. "I'm so sorry," he babbled, brow arching. "I'm sorry, I love you so much – I'm so, so sorry but I can't let you stay, Sora, I can't."

Sora's bloodless cheeks stretched in a silent scream as he struggled again, only managing a ragged sound deep in his throat as he strangled on his cries. His feet were skidding on the ground, hands slipping on Roxas's arms, and he could only shake his spiky head in abject denial, over and over as he tried to stay upright.

A real sob broke out of Riku then, making him curl inward with the force of it, but he still moved his anguished eyes to Roxas, instead, as Sora's protests became utterly incoherent. "Go," he begged, weakly, and that was the last image that Sora had of the older boy: wet hair slicked to his forehead, darkened lips parted with a hoarse, sighing noise and his vibrant eyes burning with an endless amount of guilt and pain and love all at once, gazing after Sora in a way that no one had ever looked at the other boy in his life – a way that made it so clear how much he cared, how glad he was that Sora wasn't going to be there at the end, but also how scared he was; how very afraid he was, now that Sora was safe and out of the way. He had received what he wanted, and in return he had only a cold death, drowned and alone.

And that was the last memory that Sora had of him, the last thought that crossed his mind before the bland wall swallowed up Riku' face and the last of the younger boy's control fled – and he howled, screaming out in absolute, consuming rage and misery.

He didn't stop, either.

Even when his voice amounted to little more than a croak and his protests nothing but the scratchy cries that scraped their way out of his body, tearing him up in the process, he still fought and shrieked in his attempts to get back to the boy he was leaving behind. He didn't even care that he would drown – he wanted to drown, if the alternative was to feel any more of the agony that gripped him, inside and out. He had only had Riku for a few precious days, yet the thought of not having him there when he escaped – the thought of being forced to return to his old life without the older boy was one so painful that he nearly passed out from it, collapsing heavily in Roxas's arms, sobbing until his vision was spotted black.

Roxas didn't ever let him go, though. He whispered reassurances into the younger boy's ears, trying to console someone that was far beyond reason, but there was almost no point; Sora couldn't hear them below his own rasping gasps. When the younger boy's feet slid loosely against the floor, Roxas's arms bore the rest of his weight and forcibly carried him the rest of the distance. When they came to the stairs, he turned Sora's weak body in his arms and let the younger boy smother his cries into his neck while he helped him the rest of the way. And, somehow, it came to be that Sora began to cling to his friend's shoulders as they went, his fingers digging bruises into the back of Roxas's neck; clutching desperately at him even as he fought him, bringing him closer even as he beat at the other boy's chest and shouted at him to take him back because he didn't want to survive, didn't want to live without him.

Sora never truly lost consciousness at all, but his awareness flickered in and out of a disbelieving haze of sobbing breaths and sparkling vision as door after door flashed in front of him, whipping past too quickly to be real. He watched the steps disappearing beneath his stumbling feet, but he couldn't comprehend that the distant was really being crossed at all.

It was only when the final door burst open, flooding his face with cold air, that Sora actually quietened for the first time – because they had actually stepped out onto the deck, and if they had had the time to close that much distance, to make it up there as Riku had wanted him to, then that meant that enough time had passed for—

A stuttering noise whined in his throat, and Sora stopped – everything.

His mind was swept blank, his breaths coming in short bursts that were deafening in his own ears, and he watched like an outsider at the words and explanations that he could no longer hear. He watched the unfamiliar faces of his friends as they twisted in response to the babbled words that stammered over Roxas's lips, watched in his own hollow bubble of silence as his eyes travelled over to where there were swarms of people crowding at the railings, fighting each other as they ran back and forth.

He watched as Axel broke out of Roxas's concerned grip, letting the other boy's hand clench in mid-air as the red haired boy staggered back in horror, his face shining white against the roiling ocean that stretched out behind him. His lips were trembling, his hands shaking as they gripped the strands of his hair at the roots, and when Roxas reached for him again he turned his back, burying his face in his hands. His back shuddered first, his shoulders hunching forward, and as Sora watched in his state of white noise, Axel lowered himself down in a crouch, one hand bracing itself on the floor of the deck as he leant forward. He fell to his knees next, collapsing heavily, and his fingernails tore and bloodied themselves on the wood beneath them.

"We left him," he heard himself say at one point, his voice the only one that he could still understand, but no one else responded to him. He wasn't even sure that they knew he was speaking. "He's all alone."

After a time, Leon's face appeared in front of his own, his hands gripping at Sora's face and startling him from his thoughts for the briefest second. Over his shoulder, Axel and Roxas's bodies had melded into one blurry shape of billowing coats and worn blankets wrapped around backs; they were only a bundle of material, heads bent close as Axel's tremors rocked the other boy from side to side.

"I don't have a picture of him," Sora babbled, staring at the two entwined figures as Leon tried vainly to catch his attention again, cold hands slapping at his cheeks and gripping his arms, hard. "I don't have anything – I don't have anything of him. I left everything down there, with him – I left him, and now there's nothing left of him anymore."

Leon's face faded away soon enough, but his hands didn't. They clawed around Sora's biceps, the back of his neck, his shirt while a large blanket was draped around his shoulders without his permission, his wrist while Sora found himself directed to and fro. There was a boat – small, patched at the edges – and there was distant talk of whether or not it would hold with the repairs, whether there was a reason that it had been put aside from the rest of the lifeboats, and there was an endless confusion that did not release Sora from its grip.

He watched as the others heaved the boat into the pulley system, yanking the ropes taut with fevered desperation, and he watched as another person staggered up to the edge to help them in the process, their voices loud and piercing. Sora watched, and he wondered – he wondered why they were bothering. He wondered how they could consider such trivial things as survival while the boat was coming down around them, heaving back and forth and thriving with frantic souls like an insect nest that was coming apart, buzzing with the feeble creatures that scuttled to safety. He wondered why they bothered to bring him along as they herded him into the raft, despite his protests and silently endless tears, and he wondered why they dared to force him into survival when he wanted nothing more than to sit down and curl around his blistering chest – or, better yet, to throw himself straight off the edge and sink into the cool waters beyond, just so that he could at least know what he would have felt behind that gate, when the waters washed straight over his head.

Most of all, he wondered why no one seemed to care that Riku was gone.

He wondered how the rest of the people there could walk around like things were the same, like the sinking ship was the problem with their world. He wondered how his friends could move so easily – he envied them, almost, because he was at a loss as to how claw his way back to wakefulness. He was already drowning, without the water there to do it for him, yet he was trapped in the horror that left him powerless as he was sat in a corner of the small boat, lurching forward with the hurried attempts to lower them down. They were all stuffed in that space, two strangers shoved back up in a non-existence space at the back with the rest of the gangly boys trying to get in, too, and it almost seemed a wasted practice.

Sora was aware of the waves at first, but his mind was quickly devoured with the heady realisation of what was happening to him, several details rushing in at once. His senses burst back into life, letting him know that he was colder than he could ever remember being in his life, but what made him gasp was the sudden combination of every event that was unfolding around him – ahead of him, behind the backs of the strangers that were now fighting for their lives alongside them, he could see the massive shape of the Titanic as it hovered on the surface, broken in a way that seemed impossible. Every now and then, a flicker of a shadow passed in front of the last remaining lights of the windows, plummeting too quickly to be followed by his sandpapery eyes.

It all happened so quickly. And it wasn't just because he could still hear Riku' rasping voice in his ears, or because he couldn't quite remember how he had come from standing on the deck to sitting on a boat with his shivering friends – it was that he had been a lonely son of a man that hated him only days ago, his best friend keeping him company more than his own family did, and now he was floating along the surface of the ocean, longing to share the death of someone that he had not known before that ship. The entire boat itself seemed a symbol for everything that had happened between them – things that only he knew about, now that Riku was not there to share the memories with him anymore – and it was being torn apart in front of his eyes. He didn't know where his family was – he didn't know if his parents were still alive, or if Kairi had made it out at all, or if the kindly staff that he had met over the last few days were trapped aboard the ship that was being dragged under the ice. His parents could have been dead and floating, and he wouldn't have known.

He knew that he should have been more scared than he was, terrified for what was going to happen to them now or what had probably happened to his family – but he couldn't do anything about that. He was numb. He didn't know anything, none of the details that might have put the right amount of fear in his heart; he could only be certain that he had lost the one person that he would have chosen to survive, above all others, because he now knew that he would have traded any life on that boat for Riku', even his own – but that still wasn't enough to bring him back again, to make him appear on the boat, and it was a new, harrowing finality that stole the last remains of willpower he still had. His fingers came loose where they were gripping his own thighs, his breathing pattern evened out of the swift pace that was making his sides pinch and strain. His tears stopped flowing.

And for just a moment, he closed his eyes.

The boat was still sloshing beneath them, gently rocking back and forth with the small waves that had them bobbing along the surface of the ocean, and he could feel himself swaying with each individual movement. It was relaxing; for a little while, he was nothing but a weight sitting atop the shifting waters. He was the undulating of the waves, the gentle waving of his body, and there weren't other people around him, there weren't any corpses floating along halls drowned in liquid, there wasn't death or freezing cold against his skin and he couldn't taste Riku' warmth against his lips as his memory took over.

He counted to three in his mind, calmly, opened his eyes – and for an instant, the sight that awaited him was spectacular.

The terrifying aspect had vanished, leaving only the reflection of the dying lights as they flickered across the surface of the black water, sparkling like it was being cast by a fractured gem. The ship itself was magnificent, even cracked as it was, and there was something breathtaking about how it was sinking further into the water, swallowed up by a force more powerful than itself – one of the most advanced vessels they had being destroyed by the nature it sought to conquer. Even the scattered ice shone like diamonds in the moonlight, glistening wet as they refused to cast any of their brilliance to illuminate the people floundering around in the freezing water. The light only caught on the largest objects, so that the victims were only shadows and splashes in the night, and that in itself was almost a mercy for those slowly shivering their way into an early death; they didn't have to look upon their future, at least, and that was a kindness that went underappreciated.

"It's beautiful," Sora heard himself mumble, the first clear words he had spoken in so long that he'd forgotten the last time that he'd even said anything aloud. And, as if it was a natural continuation to that thought, he added, "I think he's probably dead by now, isn't he?"

The two huddled figures at the end of the boat curled more tightly around one another, only the tops of their hoods visible, and Sora absently wondered whether he had offended them. He didn't apologise. His head was so thick and sore, the throbbing pain growing with each thought he could manage to form, and he was so tired, so utterly and completely drained that he couldn't even pretend that he cared about anything anymore. He simply felt empty; hollowed out and finished with everything that could have possibly wanted to take something else from him. He was done.

"Come here," Roxas whispered suddenly, his voice thick, and his shuddering arms curled around Sora's shoulder to pull him closer. It was only then, pressed against Roxas's shaking body, that he realised that he wasn't shivering like he had been before. It only made Roxas's concerned frown deepen, and he vainly chafed his hands against Sora's back for warmth. He shot a glance at Axel as he did so, as if afraid that he would suddenly lose the other boy if he glanced away for too long of a time, but the Irishman was sitting as he was before, eyes lost in a very distant thought.

"Try and keep warm," Roxas urged him, rearranging the younger boy's limbs like he used to do when they got drunk back at school. "And stay awake for me, alright?"

It was a surprise when Axel spoke, suddenly joining the conversation even though his expression remained afar with a muttered, "He's not a very good swimmer. He likes to think he is, but he can't hold his breath for very long at all if he's pressed, so it's a bit useless. The only time he's ever been good at that is when he's sculling down pints for a bet. Used to drink my uncle Pete under the table when he did that, just 'cause it took a little longer to take effect."

No one quite knew how to respond to that. In fact, they each maintained their silence – except for Leon, who let out a muted sound that could have been a hastily suppressed sob. It almost sounded surprised, as if he had only just fully realised that Riku was actually dead and was startled by the sudden awareness, but he made no other noises from then on.

"It'll be alright," Roxas said, breaking the quiet several long moments later. Though the words were supposed to be reassuring, they lost something of their softness as he gritted them out through clenched teeth, almost desperately. "I promise, this is going to be alright eventually, we just – we just have to stay together, right? Don't think about – don't think about anything else, just focus on keeping warm until someone comes for us, alright? Just keep warm and stay awake, keep talking. About anything – just so that I know you're still with me. Don't fall asleep," he insisted, dipping his head to meet Leon's evasive gaze to make sure his eyes were still open.

"I know that it's hard," he continued, his voice anguished, "but please just stay with me for now. We'll deal with it all soon, but… just for now, keep it together. Stay awake. That's all I'm asking – just stay warm, stay awake and keep talking. That's all I need from you, and I'm so sorry for doing this, I am, but we need to do this until we can get out of here."

They chose not to point out the obvious – that there was nothing to talk about, nothing they wanted to talk about while there was a glaringly obvious silence between them – but only because of the fraught concern in the other boy's voice, as he looked at them all in turn and begged that they put aside their friend's death for a little bit while they fought back their own. It was only Roxas's fear for their safety that made him ask it of them, so it was only their grudging acceptance of his advice that made the boys shift a bit, shuffling closer and hugging their own chests for more warmth.

They were silent for a very long time after that, the tension so thick and desolate that it almost seemed to saturate the freezing, frigid air around their faces.

"We're going to get out of this," Roxas finally murmured, when no one else even hinted that they were about to break the quiet for him. His voice shook, but it was almost firmed with determination, almost believable as he persevered. "They're going to get help, we're going to get out of this – together. We'll stay together, and we'll be fine soon enough, you'll see."

"Do you really believe that?" Leon asked dully, blinking out from where he was pulling his blanket over his head, covering his ears.

Roxas only hesitated for a moment. "Yes, I do. I have to."

The other boy almost looked impressed, beneath the hollow look that threatened to drown out every other emotion that came along, and he let his gaze linger on the other people there rather than turning it back to the floor.

"And you all have to, as well," Roxas added fiercely, "because I am not going to lose another friend tonight, do you understand?" He pushed through the unpleasant words, speaking too quickly to falter over the emotions behind them as he inhaled deeply. "You have to promise me that you're going to at least pretend to believe that, because I don't care what happens, I'm not letting any of you out of my sight. You're staying here whether you want to or not, so can you please just promise me—" His voice was becoming more urgent, hysterical, and so he silenced himself for several seconds before he slowly repeated, "Just promise me that you'll hang on for a little while longer, until help gets here. Alright?"

Leon remained slightly sceptical, but when he glanced around to find that no one else was going to say anything, he let his eyes fall shut to mumble, "Alright."

The relief that blossomed in Roxas's expression was almost as heartbreaking as the emptiness that still clung to Axel's, as he lifted his deadened blue eyes to meet Roxas's, silently. He didn't make any promises, didn't agree with the blatant absurdity that was the other boy's attempt at encouragement, but he didn't glance away when he looked into that anxious face, either. Instead, he shuffled just a little bit closer. Though his eyes fell to the floor and his mouth twisted with doubt, he reached his shaking hand out from where it was clamped beneath his arm and wrapped it around Roxas's, squeezing his freezing fingers tightly.

Roxas's expression softened with an unbearable amount of feeling for the other boy, and he was more than willing to turn his hand into Axel's bruising grip, letting him cling to his hand even though it would have been more comfortable for them to leave it within the comparative warmth of their sleeves. He did try to cover them up slightly, as best as he could with the spiky-haired lad tucked beneath his arm, and he tried to move so that their fingers were covered by the tail of his coat – and Axel nearly smiled at the gesture, even if the quirk of his lips was faint and fleeting.

It took only a few brief seconds of awkward shuffling for Leon to take pity on the others. With a soft murmur to catch their attention, he nodded Roxas along, wordlessly gesturing at Sora with open arms. Gratitude shone in Roxas's eyes, along with a hint of reluctance, and he took a moment to press his lips to the top of his friend's spiky head before he scooted a bit to pass him over into the other boy's care.

But when he shifted to the side, Sora moved with him, leaning into his side.

"Hey," Roxas muttered urgently, mercilessly patting at the younger boy's back to rouse him. He kept his hand within Axel's as he did so, but he briskly rubbed a line up and down Sora's spine, trying to bring him back into alertness again. "Come on, you need to stay awake. Keep your eyes open for me, mate, that's all, you can't fall asleep right now."

Sora remained silent.

"Just a bit longer," Roxas pleaded, briefly bringing Axel's hand to his icy lips before he unlinked their fingers, letting him close both arms around the younger boy's body and shuffle him up a bit. Sora only lolled in his grip, moving too laxly, and real worry creased Roxas's brow as he shuffled around, desperately trying not to upset the entire boat as he tried to tip Sora's face up toward his own. That spiky head merely fell into the curve of his shoulder, close to weightless, and not even the entire mass of the iceberg towering over them could have compared to the chill that crawled down Roxas's spine as it did.

"Sora, look at me."

He received no reply, spoken or otherwise.

They were still bobbing lightly along the surface of the water, gently rocking from side to side, but when Roxas spoke again; his voice was even smaller than the waves that lapped at the edges of the lifeboat.

"Sora?"

_I'll NEVER LET GO JACK! JACK? Oops wrong thing. I'll NEVER LET GO RIKU!_


	10. Epilogue

Roxas could never have predicted how much preparation went into making a stage presentable before a show. The work on the nightclub itself had been back-breaking enough on its own, with his two companions and a gradual team of helpers that came to restore the building in which he now stood, but no one had cared to mention that he would end up stooped over a large collection of large, velvet-covered boxes, carting them back and forth to stack against the back of the stage for the illusion of depth. He was aware that there was something less than appealing about seeing the back of the stage as it was, but somehow it seemed that the person benefiting from the faux-grandeur should have been breaking a sweat beside him.

"Leon?" The other boy had been absent for the majority of the morning, frantically going over his own lyrics and music to make sure that there wouldn't be any mistakes later in the evening, when the performance finally descended around them. "Is everything alright?"

A different voice answered him, emanating from the kitchens on the other side of the club. Larxene had been in there for hours, too, caught in a very similar state of nerves to their crooning talent. "Does every conversation in this place have to go back and forth on other sides of the building?" she demanded, poking her head through the doorway on the far wall for only a moment before she disappeared again.

Axel's voice floated forward from outside. "Stop shouting!" he exclaimed loudly, not even bothering to step forward to yell back at her, amusement colouring his voice. "People are trying to concentrate over here!"

There was a small bout of sniggering from that at all those present, so it was a moment before Roxas realised that the one person not joining in their childish games was the only one that he had actually been addressing in the first place. Usually, Leon was not shy in taking advantage of the acoustics as the rest of them did at every single available opportunity.

"I swear, if you're stuffing your glove again," he called exasperatedly, craning his neck so he could shout the words throughout the hall beyond, and he heard a familiar cackle emanate from the outer door in response. Roxas was beginning to know that accented laugh better than his own and he often found that it was not an awful fate to come by.

"No one will notice a thing about your fingers!" he continued, as he shoved another heavy box out of the way. "Well, they most likely will – but only because your manager plastered the story around everywhere that it could be seen before they started bringing in publicity. If there's anyone coming to this that doesn't know about your hand, I'll take a knife to mine right after the show so we can match; no one will notice anything strange about it then!"

"Yeah, that'll work just fine!" Leon yelled suddenly, breaking his silence with a laugh in his voice. "Make sure there are two mutilated freaks on the stage, that'll bring in all of the customers we can afford to keep here!"

Even without looking at his friend's face, he could picture the way that the other boy would be shaking his head to himself, most likely sat firmly in front of the vanity mirror as he had been for the last half-hour, feverously erasing any imagined flaw he came across. "It'll be fine, Leon!"

"He's right," Axel added suddenly, and Roxas's head turned as that voice sounded from just behind him, at the edge of the stage. Though the Irish boy was still addressing the other, he smiled as he stepped over a rolled carpet to seize the other end of the weight in Roxas's arms. "All anybody's gonna be thinking here is 'oh, what an inspiration that boy is up there. Didn't you hear? Nearly lost his whole hand in that dreadful incident, and he still has the nerve to play up there. Oh, he's so brave, getting up like that, isn't he? I'm going to tell everyone I know to come here after this, he's just a hero to us all. And what a lovely voice.' It's all I've been hearing whenever I step outside for a bit; you'll be a shoe-in."

Roxas choked out a laugh before he could help himself, nearly losing his grip on the box as he shifted his grip automatically. "Why is it that the only English impression you do sounds like my grandmother?" he asked in a low voice, grinning over at the other boy.

Axel only shrugged, an answering grin tugging at the edge of his mouth. "Because it makes you smile," he replied easily.

Neither was foolish enough to pause in their efforts to heft that loadstone, but Roxas's eyes softened as he met the startlingly clear blue eyes of the boy opposite him as they both carted that crate over to its place, nearly forgetting that it was in his arms. The smile that graced Axel's face wasn't an unfamiliar one, but it still brought that faintest tickling of newness and excitement to Roxas's stomach before he quashed the silly little sensation bubbling up inside him to focus on the task at hand. He would thank him properly later, he thought, when there weren't crew workers and staff that, while tolerant, had no need of a spectacle in the middle of their set-up.

However, he did allow himself another small glance as they shoved the weight into place with the rest, admiring the familiar frame that straightened in front of him, fingers flexing slightly.

"Is it too much to ask—" Leon began, but his query was cut short a moment later as another shout overlaid the first, drowning him out with a gruff bellow of, "Can one of you just answer that door, already? It's been going for almost five minutes now, someone's gotta go!"

Ed, who had been largely responsible for the successful reconstruction of that club, was not one inclined to pamper any of the boys involved in getting the business to its feet.

"Why can't you?" Axel shouted back without rancour, just as Roxas called, "What did you say, Leon?"

"I said, is it too much to ask—"

"I've got my hands full, that's why!"

"— that they like me for my singing voice—"

"Do you want me to drop a hammer on their head?"

"—rather than my devastating tale of loss and perseverance?"

They managed to finish roughly in time with one another, leaving only the smallest bubble of silence that allowed Axel to roll his eyes at Roxas before he gave one final kick to the edge of the box to push it perfectly in line with the rest of the row.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he huffed dramatically, before he leapt lightly down from the edge of the stage, forgoing the steps in order to drop straight down to the smooth hardwood beyond. He continued grumbling under his breath as he went, adopting a world-weary tone even as he flashed a grin into the man in question and earned himself a faux-threat in the form of a hammer being unerringly aimed at his skull.

Belatedly, Roxas remembered that he had a future talent in distress in the other room, and hurriedly reverted to his reassurances. "You'll be fine, I promise! They're coming to see you, not just some tragedy that they read in the papers. I guarantee you, if no one had posted that there would have been just as many people lining up to get seats the second that you even stepped in front of a microphone."

"You're lying to make me feel confident, aren't you?"

"Do you really think I'd lie to you?"

"You might," Leon pointed out, suspiciously, "if you thought that it'd get us through the first show without any hitches."

Roxas almost sighed. "There aren't going to be any hitches," he said in a soothing, albeit loud, tone. "We've already planned for everything, haven't we? And what could possibly happen that's going to seem worse in comparison to anything we've been through so far?"

To that, he received only a very emphatic silence from the hallway.

"Exactly," he pressed, satisfied. "Everything's going to be just fine."

"Roxas?" Axel asked suddenly, his footsteps tapping at the edge of the dance floor as he approached again. There was an odd note in his voice, but Roxas didn't have the presence of mind to consider why that might be as he pivoted on his heel, speaking through a smiling mouth before he had even laid eyes on the red haired boy.

"Axel, would you please help me convince him that tonight's going to be—" He stopped dead, nearly swallowing his own tongue along with his words as he stuttered to a stop. "Sophia."

The woman that was hovering behind Axel's elbow was one that was painstakingly familiar to him, from any one of the many days and nights that he had spent with Sora's family while they were at school together. The boarding school had not been one that encouraged an over-abundance of dependence on family while they were prodded into respectable young men, but on the holidays he had spent so much time with the Anderson family that he had often been recognised as one of them whenever he visited that part of London. Even staying with them at their house had felt more natural than the school, in some ways.

However, had he not been so ingrained to recognise those faces in every way possible, he might have been able to mistake the woman that stood before him now; she looked merely a ghost of the person that she had once been, framed by the light streaming through the open back door behind them. Her hands clutched at a purse in front of her, pressed against her flat stomach, and her face was pale in the dim lighting of the club.

Sora's mother let her eyes travel around the entirety of their surroundings before they met Roxas's gaze, familiar and soft even from a distance, and it jarred the other boy back into his senses.

" ," he corrected himself hastily, dusting his hands off before he strode forward. He made an effort to keep to the stairs this time, descending with some measure of forgotten respectability as he forced a smile to his lips and moved over to where she was standing. "I'm so sorry we kept you waiting at all, if I'd had any idea that you were standing out there, I would've – well, we could have taken you to something a little more comfortable than this." He was rambling, smiling too widely as he reached to shake her hand, but he couldn't quite bring himself to relax as his heart thundered in his chest. A dozen unwanted memories were already resurfacing, just by being in the same room with her, and it was hard not to flee as a pair of familiar eyes peered out at him, dulled and tired.

"No," she replied after a moment, waving his apology away with one vague hand. "No, it's my fault for not warning you at all that I was coming. Well, actually," she added, with something that might have been a laugh, "I didn't know that I was actually going to make it until I showed up on your doorstep a little while ago, so…"

She was silent for a long moment after that, her eyes going afar, and for a time it seemed that the quiet enveloped the entire venue; the labourers paused in their work to make sure that the lighting would work for the show and they took a moment to cease their noisy application of the decorations and the equipment in the back of the stage. Her silence swelled until it encompassed everyone there to hear it, drenching the room with the soft sadness that was written across her features.

Then, "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"I'm happy that you have this place," Sophia commented, once they were safely ensconced in one of the back rooms of the club. Her eyes were still devoid of any real emotion as she surveyed the half-filled crates and the various construction tools that were pushed into the corners. She was perched on the nicer armchair there, but the standard was so low that, had he been less consumed by nerves, Roxas might have offered to duck out and get one of the chairs from the club itself – if only to reassure her that they did have real furniture.

As it was, his heart was already aching in his chest and his stomach was turning over so much that he doubted he could properly speak in order to suggest that.

"I always said that you'd be good at anything you decided on," she continued softly, nodding once or twice. "You were just so determined, even back in school, and you did always love learning about the stuff behind the scenes. He always said that you loved learning the things you weren't supposed to, as well as those you were, which was why you spent twice the time on study that everyone else did." A sparse smile traced her mouth. "How did you find this place?"

It took a few seconds for Roxas to reply. "We bought it a few months ago, through some sort of distant friend of Leon's. It's been a wreck for the last few years, but the loft just above this level was still intact so they managed to sell it to us without anyone else even trying for it."

"And you're restoring it?"

"That's the plan," Roxas said, but he lacked the enthusiasm that he longed for. "The first live show is tonight, with Leon singing for most of it, so that's why everything's in disarray for the time being. I'm sorry about the mess."

"It's perfectly alright."

They both fell silent again with those words, banished to the tension that had sprung up the moment they'd actually had to stand in the same room together, unwilling to acknowledge that the only substantial link between them had been brutally severed out in the ocean. Even the silent reminder of what had transpired was enough to make Roxas's skin prickle with a remembered chill, his blood turning cold, and he didn't even need to look up at the woman opposite to know that she had not yet escaped her own grief.

It wasn't quite a relief when the quiet was broken.

"I assume you know why I'm here," Sophia murmured, the weariness clinging more strongly to her tone than before. "I meant to find you after the funeral, actually, but you were all gone so quickly and no one was quite sure where you ended up afterwards. My husband… thought that it would be best if we didn't interrupt whatever life you'd made here if we could help it; that you be allowed to go back to whichever place you'd chosen for yourself without any of us breaking into that. I did write to your family, though," she added, "just so that they'd know you were safe."

"They told me," Roxas said quietly. "Thank you."

He had never returned to England as his family might have wanted him to. He still wrote to them frequently, updating them on everything that they were doing in America and all of the fantastical dreams that were inevitably becoming concrete and steel around them, but he couldn't bring himself to go back to the home he'd known before. He had been changed by that experience, to the point where he couldn't even imagine what it would be like trying to adjust to his old life without his old friend – or, conversely, what it would be like to return without the comfort of his two new friends, the ones that had come to mean more to him than anything else in the world.

A tiny smile quirked her lips. "It was mostly selfish on my part, but you're welcome, I suppose." She fell silent for only a few seconds this time before she spoke again, and it almost seemed odd that the briefest hesitation should have preceded the question that required the most preparation, as she bluntly asked, "Did he die easily, at least?"

Roxas's throat closed instantly, making it hard to swallow all of a sudden.

"No pain, I mean," she clarified, her voice strangely empty. "No ugliness about it or drowning. All I know is that he was on the boat with you when it happened, that it was some combination of the head wound and the cold, but no one…" She faltered only long enough to regain a steady tone. "No one ever gave me any details about where he was, or what really happened to him. They don't know, I suppose. And that's… that's why I had to come to you, and I'm sorry about that, but it doesn't seem to be something that anyone else can answer for me."

It was a moment before Roxas even attempted to speak, and when he did his voice was rough and scratchy, like he hadn't used it in months. "He, uh… he just fell asleep," he said, clearing his throat. He kept his eyes on the floor as they began to sting, clouding over slightly. "That's what it seemed at the time. I thought that he'd just fallen asleep, that he was too tired, and then… that was it. That's all there was to it."

"A peaceful death, then." There was a soft, musing tone to her voice, and her head canted slightly like she was considering a pleasant idea in the back of her mind.

"I like to think so. I think he was just… tired."

"Ah, yes," Sophia murmured suddenly, straightening her back as something new flickered across her deadened features. Her throat tensed as she swallowed, and her eyes turned upward for a moment as if she was fighting tears before she returned them to Roxas's face. "There was another boy, wasn't there?" she asked carefully, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Someone that he was with on the ship, someone special to him."

"Riku," Roxas told her, tentatively.

Her expression didn't change. "I know. I made sure to find out a little while ago, before I mustered up the courage to come over here. He died, too, didn't he? Drowned, I heard, before he could get up to the lifeboats with the rest of you."

The words were nothing but the truth, but they still made Roxas's stomach swoop as another image overlaid his vision of the room; Riku, gripping the bars as he silently begged Roxas to do the impossible, pleading with every inch of his shivering body as he gestured to the younger boy with shaking fingertips. And, even worse, the memory that followed after that one and filled his mind with the sound of Sora's screams, of the older boy's grateful sobs and stuttered thanks while Roxas dragged his closest friend out of one death and into another. It wasn't one that would fade easily from his memory, and it was one that had frequently haunted him during night and day in the weeks after it had occurred – for a time, he had been set upon at any point in the day, usually violently taking him over until he was hunched over with both hands pressed to his face as his body was racked with pain and guilt.

Roxas startled when Sophia spoke again.

"They were in love, weren't they?" she asked, with not quite the guessing tone that there perhaps should have been. "No one quite seems willing to say it to my face, as if that could make me love him any less than before, but it's fairly obvious by now, isn't it? He already told us enough on his own, you know that. He was going to give up his family – no, he was going to give up the rest of his life. He was willing to be himself for that boy, without his family there to rely on or to dictate what he was going to do."

Again, it was hard to speak the words that were expected of him, as he muttered, "Yes."

"And he did love him?"

It made his stomach churn to ask, but as bewilderment settled in Roxas's stomach he had to ask, "Who? Sora?"

Sophia almost shrugged. "Either of them. Both of them."

The resignation in her voice was almost too much to bear, as Roxas realised the meaning behind it; it seemed that she merely wanted some sort of confirmation that there had been some form of warmth in her son's final days, no matter the source. She was practically pleading the information from him with the tight set of her mouth and the fidgeting fingers that tugged at the edge of her bag.

It was not an answer to be taken lightly, and Roxas thought carefully over his words before he answered, feeling his heart thumping steadily in his chest as he did so. "Back on the ship," he said slowly, staring at some point on the wall beside Sophia's head, "before the crash and everything else, I remember we were talking in the suite in the morning and he said… that he missed him. It'd only been a few hours since they'd seen each other last, and only days since they'd met one another, and he just said that like it was just a part of the routine, like it had always been like that between them."

A small sigh whispered from the other side of the room, but Sophia did not interrupt.

"And then Riku came into the rooms, kissed him, and Sora's smile was just… Riku just had to come in for a moment and say that they were going out, that was all, and they were just… happy," he stated, without real inflection. His breath sighed out of his lungs in one gust, and he had to shake himself from his reverie in order to look into Sophia's eyes. They were shining wet with tears.

"So, yes," he said thickly, after a brief pause, "I think they did love each other. Quite a lot."

Sophia's fingertips went to her throat, lightly brushing at the skin beneath her jaw in a cruel imitation of a suffocating grip before she smoothed her hand over her hair, a habit that Roxas was accustomed to. He wondered if she could feel the same lump in her throat that was blocking his own airways.

"Perhaps it's better this way, then," she suggested after a moment, inhaling deeply, "that they didn't have to live without one another. I wouldn't want him to have to live through that, in any case, so if it had to happen… I suppose I should be glad that he never had to feel that kind of loss before he was gone. That shouldn't ever be someone's last moments – no one should have to know the pain of that kind of love at all, so that's something to be had in all of this, isn't it?"

Roxas could have explained the truth about what had happened; he could have detailed the agony that had screeched in her son's voice while he dragged him away, unwittingly destroying the last moments of hope in Sora's life before he sank into his own death afterwards. He could have opened his mouth and destroyed the false optimism that was flickering behind that sweet woman's eyes and given her the truth that she so plainly craved – he owed that to her, the truth, and it should have been his priority not to lie to her, after everything else.

But he didn't.

"It's something," he agreed, voice cracking slightly with the words before he swallowed, hard. He almost regretted his words, before Sora's mother spoke again, giving him pause.

"Thank you for that," she said softly, almost a whisper, and there was something in her voice that went beyond the normal gratitude for such information. Almost, Roxas wondered whether she knew what he was keeping from her – or, at the very least, suspected that he had spared her from the worst of the truth so that she could keep her fantasy alive a little while longer.

Sophia took another deep breath, brushing at her hair once more, and then stood before Roxas could even realise that she was readying herself to leave. "You didn't have to do this for me," she said in an odd tone, "but you did and I want to thank you for that. I know this won't mean much right now, but if you ever need somewhere to stay, or even just someone to talk to… well, you're always welcome. You always were." A hesitant smile twisted her lips, managing to linger in her expression for almost three seconds before a tear splashed onto her mouth and dashed it out of existence. She brushed the moisture away in one jerky movement, nodded, and then moved to leave.

Roxas's anguished voice stopped her at the door, fingers reaching for the handle.

"I did everything I could," he burst out uncontrollably, swivelling in his chair as his wide eyes bored into what little he could see of the woman's expression. His own eyes were welling up without his permission, his chest aching with words that he had tried so hard to suppress. "Please, you have to believe me; I did everything that I could to try and get him out of there. I tried my best, it just – it wasn't good enough."

Slowly, Sophia turned until her reddened eyes met with Roxas's.

His voice was choked, his eyes blinded by tears. "I thought that getting him out onto the boat would be enough, I thought that doing my bit to get him out of that would have been enough on its own – I thought that if I could get him out of there, then that would make up for all the rest. It was already too late for anything else, and all I had left was him and that—that saving him would somehow erase everything that had happened to us there." He was dangerously close to ruining his own illusion, spilling out the secret he had deliberately kept from her. "I didn't know that he would—I didn't know that it wasn't enough, I thought he'd be alright if I did that, I swear. I didn't know," he said again, tortured, and at that Sophia took a step forward to rest her hand beneath his chin, tipping his face up when he averted his gaze.

"It's not your fault," she told him; simply, sadly. "It was never going to be your fault, Roxas. There was nothing you could have done – and there isn't anything that I could ask of you that you didn't already do for my son, without even hesitating." She patted his cheek once, her thumb resting above a dimple that did not belong to that face. "So you have nothing to feel guilty about. And Sora couldn't have asked for a better friend than you were, I want you to know that. If anyone was going to be able to keep him safe, even just for a little while… it was you."

A drop of moisture rolled to fall into her palm, and for the first time Roxas didn't feel the need to fill the quiet that unfolded between them briefly.

Then, "Oh," Sophia breathed suddenly, her voice catching in something close to a gasp as she withdrew her hand again, reaching for purse in the same movement. Roxas blinked and leaned away, swiftly wiping the wetness from his eyes and scrubbing his cheeks briefly while he watched her fish out a thick envelope from her bag. She toyed with the edge of the paper for a long second before she suddenly held it out to him, extending it in a way that made it seem that she was both reluctant to part with it and hasty to be rid of it.

Either way, Roxas warily reached out to accept it, only questioning her with a glance and two raised eyebrows.

"It's…" Sophia's gaze dropped to the floor momentarily before she steeled herself, sighing. "It's the paperwork and all the deeds of ownership for a plot down at the cemetery," she stated, bluntly. "I bought it a little while ago, but I didn't have anyone to send it to. I'd imagine his parents have their own way of dealing with things back in London, and when they didn't reply to my first letter I felt it was too cruel to try and force this on them, but I thought that I should get that spot before someone else does."

Realisation was slowly beginning to dawn upon Roxas, as his eyes flickered from Sophia's discomfited expression to the envelope in his hands. It seemed twice as heavy as it did before.

"It's empty, of course," she continued, almost conversationally. "It would have been even without the circumstances here, but there's a headstone with his name on it and there's a space for him down there, if you ever need somewhere to go – I had to go through a few different people to try and find the right dates and I'm sure that it's not my right to do this, but it seemed… wrong, not to have some sort of place to leave behind him."

"No, thank you," Roxas stammered quickly, turning the envelope over in his fingers with muted reverence. "You don't know what this means, but - you didn't even know him." There was no way he could lessen the edge of those well-meaning words. "You didn't have to do this for him."

Sophia's lips upturned, but her eyes were darkened with helpless grief once more as she calmly replied, "Yes, I did. I didn't do enough to let them be together while they were alive, so… "

She didn't need to finish. "Thank you," Roxas repeated earnestly, and his eyes finally dried of their tears as he gazed up at Sora's mother once more, trying to force every ounce of sincere gratitude into his expression as he did so. He felt he might have succeeded when the tiniest hint of warmth touched her face.

Sora's mother didn't say another word after that, choosing only to depart with a gentle squeeze to Roxas's hand and a vague smile as she left the boy sitting alone there, tear tracks on his face and throat dry with the force of the emotions rolling through him. It was a long moment before he even dared to turn his eyes back onto the papers held between his fingers, almost afraid by what he now held in his hands, but as the quiet seconds ticked over and his fear gradually faded to a bearable level, he carefully peeled it open to read the contents.

He almost didn't need the physical proof in writing, but his heart still gave a small quiver in his chest as his suspicions were confirmed: she'd bought the plot that sat right beside Sora's.

A long, unsteady breath dove down his lungs as he gently sheathed those papers back in their place and tucked the envelope into the inside pocket of his vest. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring after the woman that had long since vacated the building, until Axel's slim figure slid into place in the archway, startling him out of his thoughts.

The other boy's face was drawn with concern and his own grief, tautened with the effort of ignoring his own sadness as much as Roxas had done over the past few months, but his eyes were somewhat calm as he asked, "Is everything alright? She seemed…" He trailed off without finishing that sentence, amending it to: "Are you all right? How did it go?"

Roxas waited for a moment before he spoke, immersing himself in the knowledge that so often brought him comfort in times such as these: that out of everyone in the world, Axel was one person that he could trust to know how he felt. Even as Roxas blanched at the buried memories that Sophia's arrival so easily ripped open again, the pain in her face had just the same effect on the boy who had lost his friend in the same way, without the help of a peaceful demise to keep his eyes dry at night. Axel understood, always, and while it was not a new realisation to him, it was still one that made his breath stutter out in a sigh before he stood, reaching out for the other boy before he could really consider doing so.

He sighed again as his arms closed around Axel's neck, pulling him close and closing his eyes to the reassuring warmth and substance to his slim body. The tightness in his throat finally began to loosen as he felt one settle on the small of his back, the other stroking down his spine once and dragging an unnameable sensation with it. Their relationship wasn't always easy to define, its beginnings irrevocably tarnished as they were, but it often came to be that it barely mattered so long as they were there together.

"I'm alright," Roxas finally answered, turning his face into the side of Axel's throat so that his lips brushed along the other boy's skin with the words. He remained there for a moment longer, lingering in that unquestioning embrace for as long as he could while those arms tightened securely around his waist, but he forced himself to withdraw before his eyes could tear anew or his thin control could slip again. "And I'll tell you about it later," he promised, noting the curiosity that was simmering in the Irishman's expression.

Axel agreed fairly easily, even if his expression did remain somewhat more reserved than it was a moment ago, and for that Roxas was grateful. They had spent months in mourning for the people they had lost that night, but he didn't want to think about that right then; no matter how selfish it might have seemed on the surface of it, he didn't want to let himself sink back into the memories that could have haunted him forever. He only wanted to remember that Axel was there, nodding and smiling despite what they had shared on that godforsaken boat, and that he now he had his own family to keep by his side no matter what else had been taken from him.

Later, there would be time to cry into his fingers as the gravity of that loss came to weigh upon him all over again. There would be a day where he would find his way up to the cemetery with Axel and Leon in his stead, and his heart would swell even as it shattered at the sight of those two names sitting side by side, showered in the grey light filtered down from above. He would reach out for the hand that fitted into his own and he would torment himself with the same doubt that would always remain with him, as sure as Leon's scars from that night would cling to him from now on – as it should.

He didn't want to forget completely, not even the horror that seeped through him whenever he dared to recall flashes of images and the watery grave that two of their loved ones had been banished to. He didn't even want to forget how it had felt to cradle Sora's body against his own while the cold began to steal away the feeling of it beneath his hands, because that was still a part of the person he had loved and he would have done anything to keep that with him for as long as he could. He wanted to grieve, to be able to close his eyes and see those faces if that was the way to remember them.

But he also wanted to live. No matter how much he might have told himself he wished he'd died along with him, he had lived; there was no changing that fact.

"You ready?" Axel asked, subdued, and his eyes were full of honest concern and patience and every bit of understanding that Roxas could scarcely have dared to hope that he would find in another human being, without his oldest friend at his side. At first, Roxas had suppressed a gasp at every smile he received, seeing only the cheeky grin of his memory in every face, but now there was only Axel; quietly waiting for him to respond.

"Yes," he replied belatedly, bringing a small smile to his lips before he shifted to follow the other boy out into the wonderful stress that would distract him more quickly than he could ask for.

And, when he reached back to pull the door shut behind them both, he did not flinch back from the feeling of the thick papers shifting in his pocket. He found that there was something strangely comforting about the soft weight of it resting against his chest; it was a gentle reminder that did not set his blood aching with grief like it used to, and the image that rose to colour his thoughts was only one the two boys lying side by side, faces tipped up toward the sky and eyes closed as they bathed in the sunlight.

_Yes, this is the end of our road. Sad to say. Or is it...? ;) I think this story could use a** happier **ending, don't you agree? _


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